Scarborough Fair
by Ten-Faced
Summary: Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three other guys that look like him. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons with three extra people? Sequel to 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot'.
1. Sons of the Sun

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Kojima Daisuke. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel(s):** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

EDIT(19/01/2013): A few mistakes, pointed out by crimsonskyr, has been fixed. Thank you!

* * *

_**One and a Half Months Ago. . . .**_

The boy sitting in his chair looked up from his fifth math workbook of the day with a slight frown at the impatient knocks coming from the door of the otherwise empty classroom. Who the hell was here? The teacher was gone, and the custodians knew better than to bother him.

The knocker decided to smash their fists against the door even harder now. Kojima Daisuke scowled. Lazy bastard. The door was unlocked.

"It's open!" he snapped, and growled under his breath when the knocks got louder and more frequent.

"I'm coming!" he called as he turned the lock. "What do you wan-?"

The next moment, he fell to the ground, forced into a faint by a taser. A cloth soaked with chloroform was placed over his mouth and nose before he was arranged into a large cardboard box.

No one gave the person in the unmarked jacket and baseball hat with the wheel dolly and the box a second thought.

* * *

_**One Month Ago. . . . **_

"Excuse me?"

Nagashima Shigeo looked up at the hoarse male voice. "Can I help you?" he asked after turning off the baseball pitching machine. No one else wanted to stay and pitch for him, and Yutaka was sick at home. He had been all alone in the entire stadium until the man had come up to him.

"My son is a huge fan of yours," the man paused to cough. "And he wanted an autographed ball from you. Would you sign this for him?" he handed Shigeo a pen and a baseball.

"Sure!" Shigeo took them, and removed the cap of the pen with his teeth. "Who should I-!"

He grunted instead of finishing off his sentence, his eyes widening in shock and pain before shutting in unconsciousness, and Shigeo crumpled to the ground. While his hands had been full with the pen and the baseball, the man had hit him with a taser.

Just in case, the assaulter put a cloth pre-soaked in chloroform over his nose and mouth to ensure he would stay knocked out.

* * *

_**Two Weeks Ago. . . .**_

Okita Soshi let out a huge yawn as he batted away the wooden sword of his teammate. "Is it break time yet?" he asked sleepily. Except his facial expression, there was nothing sleepy about his movements as his sword blocked and struck expertly.

A few of his teammates rolled their eyes. Soshi could be – _was_ – the best swordsman in the school, but he was always trying to take a nap. People could – and sometimes did – set a clock by the exact time he asked for break/naptime. Always 4:32 PM. Right on the dot.

"No one's in th' equipment room, as usual," one of his friends jerked a thumb to his usual napping place. "Go get some shut-eye, ya lazy bastard."

"Will do," he yawned and stretched before wandering off. This was practically routine, anyways.

Soshi opened the door and stepped in, letting out another yawn. He frowned when he heard the sounds of something crackle behind him, and was beginning to turn when a metallic edge of some sort was jabbed into his neck, releasing a current of electricity into him.

By the time he fell to the ground, eyes closed and unable to regain consciousness for the moment, his assaulter had closed the door.

A kendo master. He didn't have his famous sword with him, but he could be lethal if he could move.

Chloroform was produced, as was a plain handkerchief, the type anyone could get anywhere cheaply. The unconscious and drugged boy was then hidden inside a wheeled crate of dodgeballs before being loaded into a waiting van.

* * *

_**Present Time**_

The chimes of the morning news woke him up. Had he left the television on all night. . . ?

_"Three teens across the country have been missing for some time, and as of now, there has not been any calls demanding ransom. Anyone who has any information about the missing teenagers should call the police hotline. . . ."_

Wait. Morning news? His eyes flew open, and they landed on the smashed alarm clock on the ground. In that moment, that broken clock was the incarnation of evil to him. Taunting him, even in death, and having the final revenge against him by not waking him up. The teenage boy could just see that clock laughing in the hell for broken household items.

The clock on the wall was nicer, but it still told him the time. And the time told him that he was. . . .

"Crap! I'm late!"

_"Despite being scattered around wide areas, authorities believe that the three missing people cases of Kojima Daisuke, Nagashima Shigeo, and Okita Soshi are all connected, as they all have extremely similar appearances."_

"Damn, damn, damn!" Kuroba Kaito stuffed his mouth with two pieces of untoasted bread as he changed into his school uniform. He had been up all night planning a heist, and hadn't heard his alarm clock.

Therefore, he had to hurry. Or else.

Kaito slammed his door shut and ran, just as the news announcer began showing the pictures of the missing teenage boys. _"The police are also asking that anyone with similar appearances to these missing people should take precautions, as the assaulter managed to somehow abduct both kendo master Okita Soshi, and sportsman Nagashima Shigeo. Again, since the kidnapper seems to be exclusively after people with faces similar to the ones shown above, authorities are asking that anyone who does resemble these people take care, and report any suspicious activities around them."_

The pictures of the boys on the screen were near identical to the one of Kaito on his bedside table.

* * *

The teacher actually seemed surprised at how Kuroba Kaito, magician extraordinaire and troublemaker, had been detained by something so. . . so _normal_, like sleeping in.

Technically, this had been because he'd been planning Kaitou Kid's heist, which was by no definition normal, but he wasn't exactly going to tell her that.

Aoko just sighed in relief before moving onto her notes. Kaito didn't get it. Was she that happy that he wasn't flipping or looking up her skirt?

After the class was over, he found out the reason why. "I thought that you got kidnapped by that person going around," she admitted, brushing back her hair. Being its usual wild self, it sprang back up into its shaggy normal form.

"What person?" he asked, yawning. While everyone had been taking notes, he had fallen asleep. It hadn't been enough to let him fully catch up, but he wasn't a brain-dead zombie for now. "And why would I get kidnapped?"

Mentally, he snickered at the pun. 'KID-napped'. Ah, if that ever happened – which it wouldn't, not if he had something to say about it – he could just see the headlines of every newspaper covering him.

"Someone's been kidnapping high school students who really look a lot like you," she seemed surprised. "Didn't you know? It's been in the newspapers a lot ever since the second guy went missing."

Well, considering that he mostly paid attention to articles on either his white-garbed alter ego, or big jewels coming into Japan, no, he didn't know. Not really.

"The kidnapper has a definite pattern," Kaito scowled as Hakuba Saguru pulled up his chair to sit near them. "He has a very specific victimology, and he only takes one person every two weeks. Obviously, he's stalking them to figure out when they're most vulnerable. Since Okita Soshi lived in Osaka and the other two in Tokyo, he either doesn't care about the distance he has to travel to get to his victims, or he lives somewhere in between the three locations of the disappearances."

"Are we talking about the guy who's kidnapping students who looks like Kuroba-kun?" Akako made her way over, shooing off the boys following her like lost puppies. "If you don't mind, boys, I'd appreciate my privacy for a while."

The guys looked heartbroken, but they did what she ordered them to do. "The last victim was the best swordsman on the kendo team. Enough to be a master, and he got taken," Hakuba told them. Between the four of them, he had the best (legal and non-magical) resources. "That was nearly two weeks ago. If this person is a serial kidnapper – which there is a very high possibility of him being - he'll strike again pretty soon. He's got a pattern, and he'll stick to it unless he gets interrupted, or becomes unstable."

Three pairs of eyes turned to him. Kaito made a face. "You're not actually going to follow me around, are you?" he demanded.

Blank eyes continued to stare at him without any response.

". . . _please_ tell me that you're joking."

* * *

"I can't believe you guys followed me here," Kaito scowled.

"We told you that was exactly what we were planning to do," Akako raised one slim eyebrow. "Why, do you have a problem with us visiting your house?" she asked rather mockingly.

"Afraid I'll find something?" Hakuba was just as bad, if not worse. Bastard.

"It's for your safety," Aoko, at least, had good intentions. "None of us want you to get kidnapped, you know."

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Kaito nearly laughed at the unintended pun, holding it back with only the help of a hastily-applied Poker Face. It looked like both Hakuba and Akako had gotten the pun about 'KID-napping' as well, though they had better control over themselves. The half-British detective turned his attention to his pocket watch to check the time. "Sixteen o'clock, fourteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds," he announced. "We'll be here till midnight."

"#$%&!"

"Kaito!"

"Damn it! I'll lock the doors! I'll be fine!"

"He really doesn't want us to be here," Akako commented, fingers idly brushing over a family picture, taken two weeks before his father had died. "Most likely scared at having someone come too close to his well-guarded heart. Afraid of having something stolen, Kuroba-kun?"

Aoko stared at her, having understood none of that, but Kaito made a face. "No, I just don't want you guys around here. I appreciate your concern, but really, honestly. . . I don't want you here."

He really had to have a word with his favorite detective later. There is only one truth. . . . try that with these three. The truth was that he could take care of himself perfectly fine, and had no need of three extra high schoolers as bodyguards, yet it took him two hours of fierce debating, arguing, and occasional violence, taking all three of them on all by himself. Quite unfair, really. When he broke one down, the other two leapt in and let the person recover while he took them on.

Still, by the end of that, they settled for checking all the closets and hiding places – minus the secret room behind the portrait – and giving him back his cell phone. "Press one, and the speed dial will connect you to the police immediately," Aoko told him, all business. Childish Aoko being serious. She was the one who would be more serious, between the two of them, but this was the girl he'd seen ever since she was a kid. The business-like Aoko wasn't quite her.

Akako muttered something before wiping her palms on her skirt. "Will your mother be coming back anytime soon, Kuroba-kun?"

"Huh? No, I don't think so. Last time I checked, she said she was in Chicago meeting an old friend."

"Your mother's in Chicago?" Hakuba looked at him.

"Yeah. Problem?"

"No, not at all. Just a bit surprised at the coincidence. You see, my mother has also gone to Chicago."

Coincidence? A chill went up his spine. Since Hakuba had nearly nothing in common with his father, he probably took after his mother. Hopefully, the retired Phantom Lady wouldn't have the misfortune of running into Hakuba's mother.

"In that case," Akako tossed her red-tinged hair back. "Lock the doors well, Kuroba-kun, and keep your phone in your hand at all time."

. . . he _really_ hoped that he had just imagined the red sparks at her fingertips at that moment.

* * *

_"Aww, my little Kid Junior has such cute friends!"_

"_Mom_."

_"Sorry, Kai-kun, but it's so cute!"_ he could practically hear his mother grin over the phone. _"Anyways, I'm at the Vancouver International Airport now-"_

"Vancouver?" he interrupted. "Like, Canada? I thought you were in Chicago?"

_"No, no, that was last week. My friend left to Japan after that, but she asked me to drop something off at her house in Vancouver, and gave me a bunch of stuff to make sure I got there in style and comfort! First Class is so awesome, and she lent me her vacation house in Whistler Village! The view on the PEAK 2 PEAK gondola is absolutely gorgeous! Kai-kun, we'll come here together one day, right? You'd love skiing here! It's the world's best ski resort! Wouldn't that be great?"_

Kaito frowned. His mother's usual words, but they seemed off. "Hey, mom," he began. "Are you alright?"

_"Alright? Of course I'm alright. Why wouldn't I be alright?"_

There it was, getting more and more pronounced. She was nearing the point of ranting, which meant something big was on her mind. "Mom, what's wrong?"

_"Oh! Gotta go, Kai-kun!"_ she trilled. _"See you in twelve hours!"_

"Hey, mom, wait, don't-" the dial tone buzzed in his ear. "-hang up."

Kaito really wished his mother would tell him things in advance. Now he had phone Akako to find out just what kind of voodoo witchcraft she had done to his house so that his mom didn't get turned into a toad or something.

Wait; did he even have her number?

Oh, well. He could find out by looking into her files at the school office. This, in his mind, gave him a perfectly justified reason to break into the school. Besides, he hadn't done that in a long time now.

Grabbing a few basic lock picks and his cell phone, Kaito left his house – locking the door – and whistled as he walked the night's shadowy version of a path he crossed every day to get to school.


	2. Doctor's Wish, Father's Love

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel(s):** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

* * *

Aside from an incident where he accidently broke the school guard's bottle of beer and had to hide in a cardboard box a puppy would have had troubles getting into, Kaito got through his school break-in relatively quickly and painlessly. And they said the path of crime didn't pay.

He made a face as he dialled in Akako's house phone number. At least, the path of a Phantom Thief paid off sometimes. But those goons with Snake. . . _they_ were the ones that were going to pay. Until then. . . .

_"Kuroba-kun, just ask for my number next time instead of breaking into the school."_

Kaito didn't bother asking the witch just how she had known it was him, or how she had known that he broke into the school to get her number. "Hey, Akako, change of plans. My mom's coming home in-"

_"About eleven hours and thirty-five minutes, maybe?"_ her voice sounded amused. _"I am aware of that."_

He shook his head. Hakuba and she would be good for each other. One obsessive with the time, the other able to see what time held in store for them. A real power couple. "You couldn't tell me about this before?"

_"That would have been robbing your mother of her joy when she told you the happy news. I am a witch, not a thief."_

Kuroba Kaito did not know about the time when Akako had dressed as Kid to throw suspicion off him, and therefore could not remind the witch that there had been a time when she had taken the world's largest pink sapphire. Unless he was willing to admit to her that she had been right the entire time about him being Kid.

Yeah, right. "Right. Anyways, she'll be safe, right?"

_"Of course she will. Are you calling me an amateur?"_ she sounded offended.

"No, just making sure. Thanks, Akako."

_"You're welcome, Kuroba-kun. And be careful. I can't see anything about this kidnapper, and Lucifer won't tell me anything."_

"Your sources scare me sometimes," he said before hanging up. "Nngh!"

The plastic cell phone fell on the pavement, followed shortly after by his limp body.

Behind him, a black-clothed figure stood with the sparking stun gun in their hand. The other hand held a cloth with chloroform, which the assaulter draped over the unconscious teen's mouth and nose before hefting him onto a hidden cart, the kind from a supermarket.

* * *

Chikage gripped her seat rest. One minute, she had been listening to music and enjoying the many services brought by a first class ticket, and the next, she was trying to stop herself from ripping open the plane doors and diving down.

Of course, the only reasons for that was because one, she would have died very, very messily, and two, she was still only above North America, making her dive not only pointless, but time consuming.

She just knew the reason for this. . . this _feeling_ was Kaito. It had to be, this heart-wrenching, gut-tearing, nerve-wrecking reaction was the same one she had given right before Toichi's stage had blown up at his last performance. His body had been so burnt. . . . The only way they had been able to identify the body had been through dental records.

Despite the impossibility of a magic accident of that magnitude – in her husband's show, anyways – the police had been quick to close the investigation after declaring it an accident. Too quick.

Chikage grabbed the phone provided by the airline – she wasn't sure which one it was, but she had to admit that they knew how to treat their customers – and punched in Kaito's phone number, getting it wrong twice. They were probably charging her for every time she had to hang up and redial, but her friend owed her quite a lot. Actually, with the new revelations she had gotten from that recent meeting in Chicago, her friend owed her more than the total debt of the United States.

When she finally did get the right number, each dial tone felt like a death sentence being handed to her son. The terror in her heart got even worse when a recorded voice came up, cheerfully telling her to leave a message.

All she could think was that They had found him. Found him, and either killed him, or carted him off to torture for information he may not even have.

Chikage began to dial another number, and drummed her fingers impatiently as she waited for the person on the other end to pick up.

_"Hello?"_

"It's me," she said into the phone, knowing her friend would recognize her voice. They had just spoken last night. "Kaito's not answering his phone."

The woman on the other hand paused. "_Are you sure he's not just sleeping? It's night here."_

"He wouldn't do that!" she forced herself to lower her voice when the other passengers sent annoyed glances at her. "His friends told him to answer his phone because of that kidnapper going around. Didn't you say that you were assigned to Ekoda?"

_"Kidnapper?"_ her friend's voice was alarmed. _"Chikage-sensei, I didn't monitor any movements from Them. What if he's been kidnapped by the guy instead?"_

Okay. So there was a chance that her husband's enemies hadn't gotten their hands onto her son yet. Great. But Kaito still wasn't answering his phone. "Check on him anyways, please," she begged. "And. . . ."

_"And?"_

"If he's not there," she took a deep breath. She knew how to face reality, knew the harsh truth had to be acknowledged. "Lock the door."

The woman on the other end got the message. _"He'll be fine, sensei,"_ she said, trying to be optimistic. How time changed things. . . . _"He's _your_ son, isn't he?"_

_Yes, Kaito is my son_, she thought grimly as she put the phone back. _And he inherited my ability to attract trouble._

* * *

11:58 PM

To: Boss (Private Number)

_Boss! rgnt matter! KK kidnapped, CK asking 4 help! Prmssn 2 go? – A_

* * *

11:58 PM

To: A (Private Number)

_Go._

* * *

". . .hey."

What? Kaito wanted to groan in pain, but his tongue felt heavy, and he had trouble getting air through his vocal chords.

"Hey. Dude, you up?"

Ah, there it went! "Nngh. . . ."

"He's up," another voice muttered in a Kansai dialect. "And 'bout time, too."

Kaito lifted the heaviest thing in the world; his eyelids. At first, he shut his eyes almost instantly, but slowly, he managed to coax them back up.

He was met with the sight of three other teenage boys around his age, all slumped around the concrete room that could only be described as a cell. ". . . If it weren't for the pain, I would think this is all a dream," he commented.

"I wish," the first guy snorted. He had black hair in tall spikes, but other than the slight hairstyle difference and the sneering expression, they could have been identical twins. The same applied for the other two.

"Where am I?"

"In hell."

The guy who hadn't spoken yet sent a glare to the sarcastic guy. "We don't know," he answered instead.

Kaito looked around a bit more closely. There were no windows, but there were vents that would barely let his hand pass on the ceiling, exchanging the air in the room. The walls looked like pretty solid concrete.

One of the two doors in the room was normal. Wood, painted white, the kind anyone would see in a modern western house.

"That's th' bathroom," the teen with the short ponytail and Osakan accent nodded towards the door.

Which meant that the other door. . .

Kaito turned, and was met with what looked like the inner side of a vault door. There was a small slot near the bottom for food trays and such, but other than that, it was impossible to open it from within, even with the right tools.

"What is this?" he demanded. Judging from how these guys all looked like him, Kaito was willing to bet that him being here was due to the kidnapper, and not the organization after Pandora. Looked like Aoko, Akako, and Hakuba had been right.

Damn. They would never let this one go. The rest of his high school life – and possible the rest of his life in general – would be filled with torment from these three.

"No one knows," the friendlier guy without the accent extended a hand. "Nagashima Shigeo. Baseball player."

He took the hand and shook it. Nagashima seemed like a nice guy. "Kuroba Kaito. Magician. Nice name."

"Thanks," he grinned. "But I'm not the only one named after a baseball star."

Kaito looked at the other two. The names of the victims Hakuba had given him had only one name that had belonged to a famous baseball player.

"Not them, though Okita comes close."

The Osakan guy got off his feet, yawning. "Okita Soshi."

"I see what you were talking about," he commented dryly as he shook hands again. "So you're the swordsman here?"

"Mm," he sat down again. "'Cept there are no swords here. If Hattori beats me at th' next tournament, I swear I'll kill that bastard for gettin' me out o' practice."

"You'll have to wait in line," the last guy didn't come over for a handshake. "Name's Kojima Daisuke."

"By bastard," Kaito started, sitting back down. "I assume you mean the guy who brought you all here?"

Their expressions all darkened. "Ya'll see him soon enough, so here's a tip. Don't say anythin' 'bout his 'daughter'," Okita warned, putting air quotes around the word 'daughter'.

"Why the emphasis on daughter?"

"Because the man is a psychopath!" Kojima snapped. "He's got this stupid mannequin and he puts makeup on its face and he dresses it up and he pretends it's a living, breathing chick that happens to be his kid!"

"Just play along," Nagashima said. "Pretend it's a real person when the time comes."

All three of them glanced up at the ceiling and shuddered.

* * *

_His daughter, his wonderful, wonderful daughter. . . ._

_He pulled on his gloves and gently stroked her hair. "Sorry, baby girl," he crooned. "But Anita, daddy has terrible hands. We can't have your pretty face marred because of some idiot who's always stuck in labs, can we now?"_

_His daughter was so kind, just smiling back at him with kind understanding in her eyes. . . he didn't deserve her. Didn't deserve the angel who had gotten herself trapped in the wheelchair, unable to move her legs._

_But without Anita, his life would be so much bleaker, like the times when. . . the times when. . . ._

_"Doctor!"_

_He turned around. "Diana-san!" he smiled. His housekeeper. His reliable housekeeper. She cared for Anita, too. Cared enough to help him find the best boys possible. Though, there was this one bad one in the lot. Huh._

_"Doctor, your hands!" within moments, she was there, pulling his hands off from the scissors he'd been gripping._

_Funny. There was blood, and it was his hands bleeding, but he hadn't felt pain. He knew pain, he did, he knew that. He felt pain back when. . . when. . . ._

_Oh, dear. He couldn't remember, and now he had gotten blood on the ribbons that made Anita look like such a cute doll. Reddish-brown on sapphire blue didn't fit at all. "Sorry, Anita," he said before wrapping his hand up with the bottom of his coat. "Diana-san, would you make sure those are fixed?"_

_His housekeeper nodded. Such a nice woman. She had a child of her own, and a husband, too, but he had managed to convince her that his family of two needed her more than her own did. _

_What had he said to convince her again? He couldn't remember. He couldn't really remember much, nowadays, except for the formulas and the drugs and Anita. Always Anita. Oh, and Diana-san, too. Such a godsend, the both of them. How would he cope without his daughter and his faithful housekeeper?_

_Diana-san finished wrapping his hand up. Efficient person, she was. Always had her first aid kit and the sewing kit with her. Ready for everything. He couldn't let her go. He couldn't work without her! Anita needed her too. They needed her for nearly everything. Diana-san was just that dependable._

_"Anita, daddy hopes you like the boys he picked out for you," he smiled at his daughter. "Such a shy lady! You must talk to the boys, at least, I insist. Diana-san, it's good for children to be around their own age groups, right?"_

_The woman nodded, and continued to sew. Right. The latest addition. He needed decent clothes before being in his daughter's presence. "Well, Anita, there's a new boy, so you'll have to wait a bit before meeting your friends again. Just tell daddy if anything happens, alright?"_

_He sighed, and pulled back. He hadn't been a very good father to Anita, and he'd really have liked to spend more time with her. Still, she wanted her legs back, and all he needed to do for her to regain use of her legs again was to finish developing those three drugs. He'd already invented ten new ones while working on the three, but those weren't the ones he needed. As soon as he was done, they could go outside together, and Anita could see the beautiful parts of the world on her own two legs._

_"Daddy will finish the miracle drugs for you," he whispered before closing the door._


	3. Tell Her, Tell Him

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

EDIT(25/01/2013): Thank you, Fluehatraya, for pointing out the mistakes in this chapter!

EDIT (24/03/3013): Added a few more details and closed up a few plot holes that apparently only I could see.

* * *

On average, a thief was a thief till the day she died. That kind of habit just never died away, no matter how much sessions or jail time you went through. It was unbreakable.

On average, a phantom thief retired early. Either by choice. . . or by death. The average was seven years, if you were looking at it from the long side.

Lady A had been doing this for eight, and this was her ninth year. She was getting old, in the insulting but sadly true words of fellow team member Eliza Sterling, the woman who was the very definition of 'cynical'.

On the other hand, that meant that she had enough experience to not be caught. Within moments, she had picked the lock and closed it behind her. Unless someone was up and looking closely at the Kuroba residence one o'clock in the morning, she was good.

The boy should have been asleep as well, unless he was up playing video games or watching television or whatever kids his age did. A quick check around the house disproved that theory. No one was in. She looked down at her phone as a new message from the boss man himself came in. Interesting.

The words of a famous magician came back to her as she stood in front of his life-sized portrait. "'We're artists, seeking attention,'" she quoted, tugging on her gloves. "Well, for now, let's keep one of your secrets under wrap. Away from the attention, eh?"

It wasn't too hard to figure out how to lock the secret door to the hidden room. The designer of this room had taught her years ago in case of an emergency should he have to go into hiding with his family.

Making sure everything was exactly as she had found it, Lady A snuck out and locked the door again before getting back in her car and texting a cynical British profiler for her help with finding a kidnapper.

By the time her car was driving towards her destination she was talking into a bluetooth. "Eliza, all I'm saying is, make a cursory profile. What? Of course they're alive, don't make it sound like they're dead! How do I know? Well, gee, the _boss_ says they're alive and I'd trust his gut feeling more than any woman's intuition. Look, can't you just whip up something based on everything you see and assume the kids are all alive? Okay, wait, alright, since you can't see reason, would you like to see your son get harassed by a phantom twenty four seven? I could totally do that. You want that to happen? Didn't think so. Remember, they're alive."

* * *

Aoko was at the Kuroba house on exactly seven in the morning. It was a Saturday, and she normally slept in, but today was an exception.

She rang the doorbell, and waited to hear the familiar sounds of feet smashing across the floors, waited for his voice calling for whoever it was at the door to wait.

Silence greeted her. She whipped out her phone, and nearly had a heart attack when the phone began to ring a few meters away from where she was standing. No. She had to stay calm, or it would waste time. Just until she could get help. For Kaito. She could do this.

Aoko took a deep breath, called her dad, and then called Hakuba Saguru, who promised to be there in ten minutes and twelve seconds.

Akako was there before she even dialled her number. "He's gone, isn't he?"

She nodded. "Maybe he's asleep?" she wanted to hope. She wanted so badly for Kaito to be well. It would be alright if her father got a little annoyed at her. If Hakuba-kun had come over for nothing. Everything would be alright if only Kaito was safe.

"I was talking to him last night," Akako said quietly, looking at the phone on the ground. She didn't pick it up. "He was alright then."

But was he alright now?

Maybe it was just her. Everyone that she cared about left her in some way. Her mother had been away 'on business' for years now, her father was always after Kid, and now Kaito. . . .

Damnit, he was coming back whether he liked it or not.

Her father came with two squad cars. Everyone down at the station under her father knew about these kidnappings, the temper her father was said to have, and Kaito. All three equalled one fast reaction.

Aoko didn't remember how, but they got the door open and went in for a short while before coming back out, shaking their heads.

Then, Akako was leading her away, and both of them passed Hakuba Saguru, who ran into the house without a word at them.

That was fine. The sooner he got a look, the sooner he could find Kaito.

She hardly noticed Akako handing her something to drink, and then sat down on the nearest set of stairs before falling asleep.

* * *

Chikage's heart sank when she felt someone push a cell phone into her hands. There was a large crowd around the area where she was standing, so she couldn't tell just who it had been that had given her this, but she just knew this was bad news. Her friend's team wouldn't contact her if they didn't have to be involved, and they would be involved if Kaito was involved.

She gathered her luggage and tried to walk calmly out of the airport, even as her legs tried to go into a full-out sprint to the nearest taxi. Her legs settled for a hurried walk that could have been natural for someone that was late for some important appointment.

The moment she was past the airport doors, someone called. "Hello?" she asked, breathless with fear. Please tell her that she was wrong, that Kaito was home and alright. . . .

_"Kuroba-san?"_

"Yes?"

_"We're sorry."_

It took all she had to keep her legs from suddenly collapsing out under her. Chikage managed somehow, and brushed back her hair to try and distract herself. "Is – is he. . . ." she couldn't make herself ask the question. Asking it, saying the very words with her own mouth was to admit that. . . .

_"We don't think so. Our criminologist is nearly done with the kidnapper's profile. She's very, very good at her job. Your contact is also out there and the moment the profile is done, she'll be tracking him with our tech support."_

"Please get him back," she begged. It was odd that she was begging a total stranger like this, but her son's life could be on the line. "Please."

Sometimes, when a person smiled, they breathed out a bit louder than they usually did. Chikage heard that slightly-louder exhale of breath over the phone. _"If we don't, half the team will scramble to commit quick suicide before our leader gets his hands on them. The boss wants Kaito found, Kuroba-san, and what the boss wants, the boss gets. You know that, don't you? Let us handle it. Destroy this phone."_

Without waiting for an answer, the woman on the other end hung up. Chikage stared at the disposable phone for a moment longer before she 'accidently' dropped it under the moving tires of the nearest taxi.

The police officers waiting for her back home were apologetic as they told her what she already knew about her son, and she cried herself to sleep for the second time that month.

* * *

Shinichi knew something was wrong when a horde of police officers followed Inspector Nakamouri into the Poirot Café, all of them grim-faced and stuffing food into their mouths like it was nothing but fuel they had to process quickly.

For god's sake, it was a Sunday morning!

Apparently, the sleeping detective could feel it too. "Did Kid send a notice again?" he asked the man in charge of going after the international criminal.

"I wish," the inspector growled before tearing away a bite from his sandwich. "It's that damn kidnapper that's been going around abducting the teens that look like each other."

"Another one?"

"Yeah. A childhood friend of my daughter's."

"You have a daughter?"

"Yes, I do. Come to think about it, she resembles your daughter in some ways. Although mine is much prettier."

"Oh, yeah?"

Shinichi tuned the two out. He knew this case. When he first noticed it, he had nearly panicked, thinking that the BO was after Kudo Shinichi, and was eliminating all the similar-featured teenagers around the country.

He had dismissed that when he realized that the Organization would have gone after his parents. A phone call had not only ensured that his father was alive and still being hounded by editors, but also very safe, protected by 'good friends in high places'.

Just how powerful was his father? When he had staged the kidnapping to teach him a lesson, he had told him that he had friends who could take on the Black Organization while he hid with them in America. That was some power, right there.

He'd ask the next time they got in contact. His mom had been safe the last time he checked, and he could check in person again later. He'd been planning to drop by later today.

Actually. . . he came back into the real world, where he witnessed two policemen drag Inspector Nakamouri out after tossing a few rumpled bills at Bourbon, who was too busy holding back his master from physically harming a policeman to actually pick up the hurried payment.

Since Ran was at a day-long karate session, he could go right now. Shinichi got back to the agency to grab his skateboard when a call got in. The screen told him that it was his mother.

"Mom?"

_"Shin-chan?"_ her voice was oddly serious. _"Where are you?"_

"At the Detective Agency," he paused. "Mom? What's wrong?"

_"I. . . I think you should see this in person. I'll come pick you up."_

That saved him some time. It wasn't hard to see or hear his mom coming. The screeching tires, a car weaving through the street with overly exaggerated movements, all accompanied a chorus of annoyed honks. His mother had gotten worse at driving.

Shinichi opened the passenger door and got in. "New car?" he asked, closing the door behind him. It was a nice enough car, two or three years old and inconspicuous. Normal. The type that wouldn't draw a second glance. Not his mother's style.

"Rental," she handed him an envelope, and then locked the car doors while he examined the thick paper package. It was filled with lots of papers, and something bulky. Shinichi opened it, and took out the mystery bulk; a disposable cell phone. "I found that in the mail this morning."

He set the phone aside for now and got the papers out. The first few were pictures of teenagers that looked a lot like him in his actual age. A pang of envy went through his body. They were their age, they had their own bodies.

Wait. "These are the victims of the kidnapping case," he realized. Behind each picture were the name, age, school, and a few details about the person. Kojima Daisuke. Nagashima Shigeo – Shinichi still remembered that baseball game all too well – Okita Soshi, and Kuroba Kaito.

The next page was a document analyzing the assaulter, a profile based on the current actions taken by the kidnapper. Shinichi skimmed through it, and he had to admit he was impressed. Whoever had made this knew what they were doing and had done great, considering how little evidence or known facts to actually work with. The rest of the contents turned out to be paper evidences, maps, and photos backing up whatever claims or hypothesises the profiler had made.

The last piece of paper was a letter. Shinichi glanced up at his mother, and began to read aloud.

* * *

"Inspector Megure!"

Officer Takagi, the unofficial 'babysitter' for the Detective Boys came jogging in with an envelope in his hands. "Conan-kun dropped by to give this to me. He says he got this from Kudo-kun. He also says it's extremely important, sir."

"From Kudo-kun?" raising an eyebrow, Inspector Megure took it and began to read the printed letter enclosed. He gestured at Takagi to remove and organize the contents of the envelope.

_'Dear Inspector Megure,_

_'How have you been? Conan tells me you're fine, so I'll just skip pleasantries. A few of my contacts were working on a profile for the kidnapping case – I believe the media has dubbed it the Clone Kidnappings – and I got word of the newest disappearance. _

_'What's enclosed is a working profile of our kidnapper. It should have everything in there. Inspector, I can't get any further involved with this, because of the obvious reasons. So I leave it in your hands._

_'See you!_

_'-Kudo Shinichi' _

"Is it a good profile?" he asked. Other officers had joined Takagi in the analysis of the gift.

"Yes, it is," Shiratori looked impressed. "Whoever did this knows what he's doing. Even with the lack of evidence and information, he's done a good job."

"The profiler could be female," Satou hinted as she began to pin them up. "Alright, guys, this man's managed to snag a boy right from under our noses; let's get them back!"

The officers roared their agreements and began to get ready to pay attention to the what the profile would tell them about their criminal, looking like enthusiastic students.

The enthusiasm was probably due to Satou being the one to say it than the actual burning desire to catch the man, but Megure was proud of them despite it.

Now if only Nakamouri would stop phoning to yell at him every five minutes. . . .

* * *

When a timid voice began to call from the small slot at the door, Kaito's eyes flew open instantly. "Hello? Are you alright?"

For a moment, he thought that it was a police officer who had tracked them down to this place, wherever it was. That hope was dashed when he realized that a police officer wouldn't exactly sound scared out of their minds.

Kojima began to unleash a torrent of curses at the woman, while Okita and Nagashima both got up. "Time for food," Nagashima explained as he crouched near the slot. "We're here, Diana-san!"

A tray was shoved in, followed by three more. Kaito noticed that the trays all shook as they were handed to them. "I'm sorry," the woman on the other side of the thick door to their prison muttered.

"Wait," Kaito crouched, and then got onto his knees. "Can I ask you some questions?"

From this angle and sight point, all he could see were her legs, but he saw them hesitate. "Okay?" it came out more as a question, but 'Diana-san' slowly bent her own knees. Kaito saw part of a face that was pale with fear, drawn with stress. She was in her early thirties, but he noticed a bit of white against her dark hair.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, making sure that his voice didn't hold any accusations, only innocent curiosity. It wasn't too hard.

The woman looked away, turning her head to see if anyone was coming. "He has. . . he can. . . he has my husband, and he's a doctor who's developing some kind of drug, a poison that can. . . I don't know, but he killed a random stranger just to prove that he could. . . I'm sorry!"

"Hey, it's alright," he spoke softly, feeling like the older one here. The woman was like a scared rabbit, ready to bolt to any direction at any second. "Who's he?"

"Doctor. . . Doctor Hailey."

"Doctor Hailey, huh? And how does this drug kill?"

She gave a helpless shrug, and then flinched violently as she heard something on her end of the thick door. "I'm sorry, I have to go before he-" she left, and Kaito could hear a door creak while swinging closed.


	4. Some Cause

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

EDIT(24/03/2013): Fixed a few plot holes.

* * *

"You shouldn't have bothered," Kojima muttered, running a careless hand through his spiky hair. The hair seemed to be naturally like a hedgehog's, because they just sprang back up into their spikes after his hand. "That $!# & won't %# &ing help us."

Kaito deemed it fit to ignore him, partly because the swearing didn't impress him – after Inspector Nakamouri swore at you more than three times, giving you the red-purple-blue faced Nakamouri Special Deluxe Combo at each and every one of them, you built up a very strong immunity to curses – and partly because what he bothered to do was his business. So, this vault that they were stuck in. . . To him, the place felt like a basement, and the sound of the door shutting meant that the entrance of their prison was in a room. Diana-san's voice had been still audible till the door had swung shut, so it was either a very small room, or a closet.

This was a pretty decent-sized room they were in, the approximate size of an apartment where one person might live, though he was sure that this was more complicated than that. Whoever had ordered this room to be made had a lot of money, privacy, and land. The shady kind. After all, most people in Japan didn't normally build what could have been a bunker or a torture chamber under their houses.

Diana-san had said something about a doctor holding her husband hostage. A doctor who made drugs that could kill. . . . Someone ruthless enough to not only kidnap a couple for his evildoings, but kill a random stranger to prove his power and dominance over them.

Kaito glanced back at the three other guys that were in the same situation as him. Despite Kojima being a very unfriendly – polite understatement of the year – person, Okita and Nagashima were just tired, cranky and at the end of their nerves at being held here. None of them wanted to _be_ here in the first place.

And Kaitou Kid did not do things he didn't want to do. The thief did what _he_ wanted, and what the thief wanted right now was to get out of this vault, get the psycho doc and throw him in jail before turning the hair colors of a few policemen pink (with easily removed dye because he _was_ someone who knew how to be grateful, contrary to what tantei-kun thought) and then running away.

Also, he sure as hell wasn't going to leave the other three behind, which left the question; How to get them all out of here?"

* * *

"Our kidnapper most likely lives in this area," the presenter circled the area of the map around Beika. "Because the first victim, Kojima Daisuke, wasn't famous or well-known. He was a relatively normal student, which leads us to believe that the only way our kidnapper would have come in contact with the criminal was through casual sighting. He attended Jikogenba High School, and didn't have many friends, or lead an active social life. His bag and books were left in the classroom he was last seen in, meaning the kidnapper not only knew about Kojima's habits, but also knew enough about this school to slip in and out without being seen.

"While our second victim Nagashima Shigeo was not only famous – he went to the Baseball Koshien sometime ago, which was broadcasted across the country – he also lived in the area, and attended Kohnan High School. Okita Soshi, our third victim, on the other hand, lived far out of the area allowing for casual contact, but he had a profile of him done a few days after Kojima disappeared, when a newspaper did a special on young swordsmen across the country. We think the kidnapper gained interest in Okita when he saw his picture, and planned his abduction while planning and carrying out Nagashima's. After Nagashima was taken, the abductor went to Osaka, observing him till he found an opportunity to strike.

"Our fourth victim, Kuroba Kaito, supports the theory of our kidnapper living in the area. While he is the son of the famous magician Kuroba Toichi, he hasn't exactly done anything to get media coverage. He does, however, live close to where we estimate the kidnapper to be in, further backing the theory.

"As no bodies have been found, we believe they're alive. This kind of specific victimology, whoever is taking these kids is trying to accomplish something. If they're trying to collect them, then they'll most likely wait till the collection is complete before actually killing them. Kuroba may have completed the kidnapper's collection, but again, we are trying to hope for the best.

"Our criminal is most likely a man, maybe with OCD who most likely suffered something big within the last six months, enough to push him past the brinks of insanity. He's highly organized, efficient and runs a tight schedule. He takes care not to be seen by any witnesses and if they do see him, they don't quite note him as out of the ordinary because he can blend in or give a harmless appearance.

"We've compiled a list of all the houses that have the capacity of holding four teenagers – three of them with extraordinary talents, as reported by fellow classmates, teachers, and family members. The people on this list have also suffered something dramatic within the last six months. We want you to go and ask the people questions, report anything suspicious. Warrants can be issued, but don't break into houses before getting them."

Inspector Megure stepped forwards. "Let's find these boys."

* * *

Kudo Shinichi stretched, before letting out a yawn. Next to him, the woman currently trapped in a child's body shot him an annoyed look. "You were the one who dragged everyone out here," snapped the girl currently going around under the pseudonym 'Haibara Ai'. "So care to explain why?"

Dr. Agasa didn't say anything as he drove the rental car, but Shinichi could tell that his old-time neighbor wanted the answer.

Well, he supposed running into their house and dragging them out to run to a borrowed/given car to take him somewhere wasn't exactly the best explanation.

"You know that kidnapper? The one who's been taking guys that look like me?"

"We've already established that it's not Them."

"Yes, we have. Let me talk, Haibara," he ignored her glare. "You remember Club A?"

"How could I forget? You sprang Them on me without any warning."

Shinichi could just tell that she was going to be holding this particular grudge for a long time. "Yeah. Anyways, I met a certain thief the club was named after just a few hours ago."

"Lady _A_?" Dr. Agasa looked back, and nearly drove his car into a lamppost. "Sorry, sorry!"

"Yeah, her. She says she has personal interest in seeing this case solved before anyone dies. We've made . . . a deal of a sort."

"You really love to gamble with the Devil, don't you?" Ai commented, leaning her head on the window. "So? What was the deal?"

* * *

_"You're not my mother," Shinichi stated flatly after he folded up the letter and placed it back into the envelope._

_"When did you figure it out?" the person that was not his mother grinned cheekily, and swung his watch around cheerfully on 'her' finger. Shinichi looked down to see the tranquilizer watch missing._

_Damn thieves._

_There wasn't enough room in the car for him to shoot a super-charged soccer ball to 'her' head, and he would be the one to suffer most if he inflated the soccer ball to its full capable size. Time to stall for more time._

_"Your driving," he said while keeping an eye on 'her'. "Even my mom isn't _that_ bad at it."_

_"Whoops," 'she' muttered. "Should have paid more attention, eh?"_

_"And then there's your makeup on your mask," he continued, casually moving his hand near the pocket that was farthest away from 'her'. "My mother doesn't wear that brand of makeup."_

_"It's my favorite brand," 'she' pouted. "I was short on time. It was hard enough knocking her out and stealing her cell phone."_

_"You knocked out my mother?" his hand came back onto his lap, clenched in a child's fist._

_"Oh, she's perfectly safe. It's like one of these tranquil darts," 'she' gestured to the watch. _

_If it was like one of his tranquilizer darts, she should have been fine. Soon, she'd wake up, notice her missing phone, and track it down._

_"Who are you?" he raised an eyebrow. "And why the profile?"_

_"We haven't met before," 'she' smiled, and extended a hand. "I'm Lady A. Edogawa Conan, yes?" _

_"Detective," he added, taking her hand. There was something covering her fingertips. Probably to keep them from leaving fingerprints behind. "Again, why the profile?"_

_She yawned. "If that envelope was dropped off at the police headquarters by an anonymous person, what do you think would have happened?"_

_"They would have opened it up and seen that it was a profile. For the case they're working on," he answered._

_"Correct. But why? I mean, an official criminologist would be working _with_ the police, requesting everybody in the department to cooperate, to make sure all possible information was at their disposal. Profiles of criminals aren't just randomly dropped off in police stations. If I did that, they'd be suspicious. Oh, I'm sure they'll recognize that it would be a very helpful compass in their quest to find the lost boys; my friend's pretty good at producing good work when I annoy her. But they'd also think that this was a method the kidnapper – or anyone sympathetic to his cause – was using to throw them off track. Waste valuable time on either going through _every single piece_ of information in there, or tracking down the person who dropped it off. An average kidnapped victim is dead after twenty four to thirty six hours, and while this isn't average, I'd rather not gamble with bright lives of young people."_

_Shinichi kept his eyes on the watch in her hand. "Makes sense. So what's in it for you?"_

_"The satisfaction of knowing I saved very talented teens from a much-too early death?" she suggested. "That, and its personal interest. I'm a fan. Come on, Conan-kun, I chose you as my courier because you have a strong sense of justice. These kids aren't dead yet as far as I know, but they're in danger."_

_"You owe me for this," he stuffed the profile back into the envelope, and waved the letter in her face. "But why'd you write a letter in m- in the name of Shinichi-niisan?" He had nearly slipped and told the thief that he was the Kudo Shinichi. Hopefully, Lady A hadn't noticed._

_She winked. "You and that high school detective are pretty popular and trusted in this police department. They wouldn't question it if it had both your supports backing it. So, Great Detective of the Century-san? Catch this kidnapper for me, and I'll make it worth your while!"_

_A smoke bomb went off, and Shinichi began to cough as the smoke turned out to make him very, very drowsy. Lady A put the watch and the car keys on the dashboard before taking an envelope out from a purse he hadn't noticed before. "Additional information," she explained, yawning as she peeled some kind of thin, clear plastic off the keys. Being older, she had a stronger resistance to the gas filling the car. His body was a prison sometimes. "The car's rented for another three weeks. Use it how you will, it's all paid for."_

_She left by the door on her side, and shut it quickly. By the time he had managed to struggle through the drug's influence, grab the keys and open the door for fresh air, she was gone._

_Glaring at the direction he had last seen her go, Shinichi sat down and opened the second envelope._

'My team already found the most likely address, but that's just too specific, so I leave this tidbit of information to you. The police should be there soon, if they follow the profile, so wait for them.'

_Below that were an address, and a few more additional sentences._

'Oh, and my tech-savvy friend hacked into nearly every resource he could get to, and he tells me a child named 'Edogawa Conan' never existed. Interesting things, eh? If the media knew the friendly rival of the great Kaitou Kid didn't exist. . . .'

_Was that supposed to be a threat? Or. . . . He remembered what she had said._

"So, Great Detective of the Century-san? Catch this kidnapper for me, and I'll make it worth your while!"

_He closed the letter up and shoved it into his pocket. At the very least, he could get Lady A to shut up on his non-existent alias. At the most, another skilled criminal would owe him. Somewhat._

* * *

"So," Haibara crossed her arms and shot him a dead look. "You're going to play hero to keep your identity secret with a thief who may or may not keep the deal."

"Pretty much," he admitted. "But I think she'll keep her word."

Before, back when Haibara was nothing more than someone in the same unfortunate situation with him, when she was nothing more than someone working on a way to get him back to his real body, she would have said several things about his sanity, his common sense, his mentality, all of them rude in her usual dry way. Now, she seemed to trust him enough to just sink back into her seat as she closed her eyes.

Shinichi appreciated the support. He really did.


	5. Impossible Task

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

EDIT:(30/01/2013) Errors corrected, thank-you shout out to mountainelements!

* * *

Kaito nearly ripped out his hair - much like, a part of his mind noted, the irritated Inspector Nakamouri would do whenever he got away magically - because of the frustration at the nothingness of nothing happening. There was nothing in the room. Nothing. Even a lock-pick, useless as it would have been against the door that was practically a concrete wall, would have comforted him somehow. But no, except three other people and a few plastic plates and dishes, there was nothing, and what he had weren't exactly lock-pick material things.

Or, for that matter, entertainment-worthy. And since he couldn't ask questions on why they had not found lock-pick materials yet. . . ."How are you not dead of boredom yet?"

Three pairs of dead eyes looked at him before drooping down again.

He was probably overreacting, but he had, for as long as he could remember, had something stuffed up his sleeve. Something that could amuse him, keep him busy. A pack of cards. A firecracker. A lighter. A yo-yo. A magic eight ball. _Something_.

And now he had nothing. His fingers twitched. As soon as he got back to school, he was doing grand-scale magic. Or pulling off a super-fancy heist. Something extravagant. Something where no one would be bored, because by god, boredom had to be a form of torture.

His restlessness seemed to have spread, though, because a very well-napped Okita looked at an equally over-rested Nagashima. "Think it's time for th' exercise?"

The exercise. Since the two of them were in athletics, it was apparently essential that they stayed in shape. Between doing nothing but staring at the white wall, eating, and sleeping, Okita and Nagashima had been doing stretches, push-ups, sit-ups, anything to keep themselves in shape, including running back and forth across the room racing each other.

Kojima didn't do sports, apparently. He thought that what they were doing was a waste of time. He was a very pessimistic guy.

Kaito didn't think it was a waste of time, and joined them, stretching and flexing his muscles. If – _when_ – he got out of this place, he had no intention of getting arrested as Kid just because he had let himself go lax.

While beginning to stretch, he eyed the ceiling with the strange small vents again. The others had informed him that the vents would release sleeping gas to knock them out before being taken to be dressed up and used as a human mannequin for a tea party. It sounded terrible, especially with even the seemingly-lax Okita looking nervous about it.

Like he had noticed before, those vents were too small for any of them to fit through, unless they all went through a magical shrinking phrase till they were around the size of a newborn puppy. Still, he glared at the ceiling. He could, he knew, get himself up into the ceiling's corner. He had done that on the first day – or what felt like the first day to his internal clock. No way of getting out through there, but maybe he missed something. He hoped, for the first time in his life, that he did, but in his heart he knew that wasn't it.

His mind and body told him to focus on keeping fit, so he began push-ups. Bend his arms to lower his body down, come back up after a moment, clap, and repeat the entire process.

But then again, he had always been an amazing multi-tasker. Most magicians were. The plans for this room were pretty simple, not exactly designed to please guests with a fantastic view or pleasant colours. The bathroom had a toilet, a shower stall, and a chute for garbage. Too small for even the amazing Kaitou Kid to fit through.

As for the gadgets at his disposal. . . . He had gotten his own personal set of toiletries when he had woken up, and any extra things he needed would come in with the food on the trays, or so the other guys had said. Unless there was a way to get through with the equipment he had, Kaito had to think up another way.

What about the water? The water from the toilet and the shower stall had to go somewhere. . . maybe if he left the sink and shower running permanently? If he used up enough water, _someone_ looking at the water bills outside of this place had to realize that something was wrong, right?

But there wasn't much of a guarantee of that plan working. All someone who thought this suspicious had to do was phone, and either a terrified Diana-san or the mad doc he'd heard so much about could answer, and give a lie about a malfunctioning sink or lots of visiting family. Besides, they could always just shut it off through a switch of some sort, and deprive them of water entirely.

Still, Kaito decided to keep that as an option, just in case.

"Have any of you ever tried yelling as loud as you could?" he asked.

Kojima scowled. "Screamed my head off when I first got here. Nothing happened."

So the only people who heard Kojima – if they heard him at all through the materials this room was built from – were the ones already aware of him being down here. Or, people who just didn't care. The world was a cold place, where some living beings who called themselves humans just couldn't find it in themselves to take the time to be nice, even just a little.

Heartless, greedy people. Just like the people who had killed his father for the so-called stone of immortality. Just like the person that had kidnapped them for selfish reasons.

Kaito decided, then and there, that he would go down fighting against people like this. His mind began whirring like a machine again. He had to stop putting himself into the situation. He had to isolate it, make it less personal. Poker Face, amazing as it was, did not completely stop emotional strings from getting attached. His next best tool at hand, his ability to slip into the skin of another, might come in handy right about now. See things from a different perspective. But not a killer like Snake, who not only did not care, but would have been more than happy to see them all killed if it ensured his own safety. Someone with a sense of justice.

It took him the time for five push-ups, but he managed to put himself into the shoes of the person with the closest personality around him; Hakuba Saguru. Think Brit, Holmes, time, accusing Kuroba of being Kid the Phantom Thief. Now, here was an interesting puzzle for him to solve. Four seventeen-year old males are imprisoned in a room capable of being filled with sleeping gas that may be easily substituted for poison. In an unknown amount of time, they might die. One of them must get all of the four out of the windowless vault that is most likely underground before anything really bad happens. How?

He nearly bashed his head against the floor when he realized that even Hakuba – or the metaphorical mask of Hakuba he had donned – could not solve this. Not that it was a good idea, anyways. A detective solved mysteries. An artist, a magician thought up ways to make the impossible not only possible, but enjoyable. Kaito growled. His dad could have probably done this in five seconds flat.

Frustrated, he increased the speed of his clapping push-ups and tried to find a way to get out of the abovementioned vault with toothpaste, soap, shampoo, food, toothbrushes, plastic dishes and cutlery in his own chaotic, unpredictable, _magical_ way.

* * *

"This could be the perfect setting for a horror movie based around an asylum," Haibara commented as she looked outside the car from her seat.

Shinichi agreed with her statement. The building was gray, concrete, and eerie, like there was a presence hiding within it, something that wasn't quite right.

If Lady A's tech support had been right, then his instincts were correct as well. Somewhere within this house would be a madman kidnapping teenagers for some twisted reason.

Lady A, the phantom thief. Because Japan didn't have enough to deal with, having Kaitou Kid and everything. Now there was a woman who liked to auction off things that didn't even belong to her in the name of charity who might or might not know his secret here.

If he believed in magic, he might have been inclined to believe there was a certain spell of a sort that made him a magnet to trouble and death.

Professor Agasa parked the car a slight distance away, behind the tall decorative bushes to hide them from sight. Well, even if he wasn't being blackmailed-slashed-bribed to take this case, Shinichi knew he would have gotten himself involved anways. Like Lady A, this was also a matter of personal interest to him as well. It was surprising at just how much the four people kidnapped looked like him, and the reason for this was a mystery. He wanted to know what would drive a man with the right resources and the right setting to do this.

A beep drew him out of his thoughts on his personal goals. It was his newest phone, the disposable cell Lady A had given him. The cheap screen glowed brightly, showing a new message from an unknown number. He opened it, already guessing who had sent this.

_'Dr. Andrew Hailey, fifty-three years of age, gifted chemist. Mother was Japanese. Seems to use far more electricity and water than what's needed for one person, according to his bills. Also, he went missing seven months ago, but was found unconscious in an alley near his house and was then taken to a hospital three months after his disappearance. He was released after a month of treatment._

_'Point of possible interest; he orders lots of old-fashioned fabric, lace, ribbons, and a type of neural-inhibiting drug called atracurium besilate online._

_'Hope that helped! :D_

_'~A'_

The letter at the very end of the message confirmed his suspicions. Shinichi closed the phone and stuffed it back into his pocket. Hope that helped. Yeah, right. She was just manipulating him. No wonder her disguise as his mother had been good, she had a personality like Kudo Yukiko's.

"Hey, professor, do you know anything about a doctor named Andrew Hailey?"

His friendly neighbor scrunched his forehead as he tried to place the name in his memory, but it was Haibara who answered him. "Dr. Andrew Hailey? Does he specialize in chemistry?"

"You know him?"

"I heard of him," she answered. "He's somewhat famous in certain parts of the chemistry world with his works on gold and the effects it can have on the human body. I read one of his papers. Brilliant man, if not a bit eccentric."

"Eccentric? In what way?"

She shrugged, examining her nails like she didn't really care. "Apparently, he'd go off every now and then to make a puppet, or a life-sized doll. I saw a picture of a few of his works, and they were remarkably good. Not the kind of work you'd think a man like him would do, but he could have been an artist."

Life-sized doll? That didn't seem too relevant. But if the former Sherry knew about him . . . "Was he in the organization?"

"No, but They wanted him. They thought he would have been a valuable addition to Their ranks, but They never could approach him in the right way."

"Why not?"

"I never got the exact, official details, being stuck in the lab, but I overheard some agents complain. They said it was like he was protected by a guardian angel or something."

Guardian angel or not, he had disappeared for three months over half a year ago. "When did you hear this?"

She frowned, and made a few mental calculations. "A year ago, maybe?"

Suddenly, his personal interest in this case got much, much higher. "Haibara, professor, I think you need to know something."

* * *

_There was a struggle as a man with a mixed nationality in a slightly-torn lab coat was dragged into a room. A cement room, with a bare light bulb that glowed to show the cracked walls, the stains of brown on the ground that were never fully washed out, down the drain and the metal grills on the ground. The man in the lab coat was immediately strapped to a high-backed chair by his two captors, who left the room silently, almost eagerly. When another man walked into the room, the captive man began to speak immediately. "What is this? I demand you let me go! Do you know who I am? I could have you all thrown in jail for a hundred lifetimes if I-"_

_"Shut up," the new man in black who had just walked in had a cold voice. No, not just cold. Bored, like this was all a tedious game he was being forced to play till a certain time._

_It might have been his bored voice, or his half-lidded eyes that looked scarlet in the harsh light, but the man cowered immediately. This man was dangerous. "What do you want from me?"_

_"Your total cooperation," the man in black smiled tiredly. "Of course, we'll ask a few questions first, if you don't mind, Dr. Hailey. And excuse us for being suspicious, but our business is one filled with trickery. I'm sure you'll understand if we use some methods to ensure the truth. Perhaps a demonstration?"_

_"W-what?" Dr. Hailey was a man accustomed to wealth, a good environment, and things going his way. None of this fit with what he was used to. "Who are you?"_

_"That's a good question. Actually, I'm the owner of several successful newspapers and magazines, but you can call me Armagnac for now," Armagnac hooked an IV drip onto his other arm._

_The IV was dripping atracurium besilateinto his system. When his heart pumped the neural inhibiting drug all over his body, he would be a prisoner in his immobilized shell. Armagnac brushed off his hands and gave a pleasant, sincere smile for the first time._

_"Shall we begin?"_

* * *

_He opened his eyes. Bad dreams. Bad dreams that interrupted his nap and put him in a bad mood for the rest of the day._

_Rubbing his eyes, he stretched his arms, sore from his crash on the desk. Anita wouldn't have wanted him to do this, she would have wanted him to get a good night's sleep, rest decently, and get his body accustomed to a schedule, but he had to work. Even if he died working, he had to finish this drug._

_Hopefully, she'd be happy with the playmates he had gotten her while he worked. Kids should be near their own age group . . . or so someone had said._

_He rang the bell for Diana-san. Breakfast, strong good coffee, and he'd be ready for another day of hard work. But before, he'd set up the guest room so that Anita could get to know the new boy he had found for her. All of them were polite gentlemen who would treat his daughter like knights from the Round Table – the good ones._

_They had to be the nice ones in this new society filled with rowdy youths. After all, their looks were that of a gentleman's._


	6. Immovable

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

* * *

Officer Takagi did a double take when he saw him approach. "Conan-kun?" he asked, almost in disbelief. "Did someone die here?"

Shinichi might have laughed. Or said something snarky. 'Conan' just sighed and shook his head. "No, we were passing by."

"But I didn't see-" he began, and then he noticed the rental car. "Oh, is Detective Mouri here?"

"No," and, because he didn't want to waste time, Shinichi asked the first question. "Are you here to investigate the kidnappings?"

"Yes. Thank you for bringing us the profile, by the way. Every man available is out looking for a suspect. Do you think this is the house with the kidnapper?"

It didn't really matter what he thought, because it was what Lady A had told him, but he wasn't going to give away his sources. A good detective, while having knowledge and intuition, also kept his contacts a secret. "Yes."

The officer was far too used to him to even argue. He just nodded and phoned Detective Sato before beginning to go up to the house.

Shinichi followed behind, palming one of his bugs. When the person inside the house opened the door, he planned on tossing it in.

He wasn't sure if this doctor was in the Organization, but the BO certainly had wanted him, and he had gone missing for three months. Since Haibara's knowledge on his connection to the organization was outdated, Shinichi deduced that They had gotten their hands on him.

And since he was alive . . . he could assume that he was working for the organization. They didn't leave behind survivors – Haibara and himself being a few exceptions, of course. If the doctor had a guardian angel before, he didn't now.

The only thing bugging him was the kidnappings. It was extremely unlike the Black Organization to let this go on. These kidnappings were, by now, all over the country, and they were attracting a lot of attention. They had also been easy to track, considering a phantom thief's groupies had managed to track them before the police.

Shinichi shook it off as the officer rang the doorbell. After a moment, a buzzer rang and the sound of someone's voice crackled to life. _"Y-yes?"_

A woman. Not only hesitant, but nervous. Shinichi was a bit taken back by it. The doctor was male, and all of his victims were male. Unless he had been taking women as well. . .

Or if he had an accomplice. . . .

"Hello, I'm with the Police!" Officer Takagi showed his notebook to the camera. "This is the house of Dr. Hailey, yes? Would you mind answering some questions?"

The intercom crackled slightly. _"Um. . . I'm only the housekeeper. The doctor. . . the doctor is busy."_

"It's alright; I just want to talk," Officer Takagi gave his friendly grin.

There was some more hesitation. "_Um. . . okay."_

A few moments later, a woman in an apron opened the door and blinked. "Hello?"

While Officer Takagi asked her some questions in a friendly but authorized manner, Shinichi looked at her. Part Caucasian, part Asian, she spoke Japanese well enough, and was very pretty, though she looked stressed. Nervous. He could even see some white strands mixed in with her dark hair, though she was probably in her mid-thirties at the very latest. From her answer to Officer Takagi's question, her name was Diana Smith, and she was the housekeeper for Dr. Hailey, who was not to be bothered under any circumstances.

"What's going on here?" a crabby, sleepy voice snapped. The housekeeper flinched, and immediately looked down at her feet.

The door opened a bit further, revealing another person of mixed descent, this time a man in his fifties standing and glaring at them. "The police? Diana-san, you should have called me first."

"S-sorry," she mumbled, looking only at the ground. Her hands were trembling, and her nails had been chewed thoroughly.

"As for you!" he snarled at the poor officer, who also flinched at the sudden aggressiveness. "Stop picking on my housekeeper! She's a fine woman who does what she's told!"

"Apologies, sir, but I'm supposed to ask a few questions-"

"I refuse. Leave."

"Sir, but please, just let me explain-"

"I don't want explanations, I want you out!" he roared. Bags under his eyes, nervous trembles in his hands, tangled hair, stained and crumpled lab coat. . . . He was working hard and late.

Officer Takagi was trying to calm the doctor down, and Diana-san was cowering while also tugging at the doctor childishly. No one was looking at him. Well, he wasn't going to get another chance like this. Shinichi casually tossed in a few bugs, managing to get one into the doctor's lab coat. Another one ended up into the housekeeper's apron, but the rest rolled around into the house. And just in time, because the man had lost his temper at Officer Takagi's stuttering.

"If you want to ask me things, bring a bloody warrant with you!" with that, the doctor slammed the door shut.

Officer Takagi sighed, and jotted a few things down on his notebook. "That makes it the. . . _fifth_ time I've been chased away without progress for the day," he pocketed his notebook. "We were supposed to narrow the list down before we could get the warrants, but at this rate, we'll never find them in time."

Shinichi gave a cheerful, child-like speech on the benefits of being positive all the while itching to find a way to get the police focused onto this house, and this house specifically.

* * *

Kaito blinked. Alright, he could blink.

He tried to move his fingers. He tried to have a panic attack when his fingers wouldn't respond to his brain ordering them to move. He settled for blinking as fast as he could.

Across the room, Okita blinked back. Next to him, on his right, Nagashima rolled his eyes around. On his left, Kojima somehow managed to give him a dirty look even without being able to move his facial muscles.

Damn. So this was what they meant by being a human mannequin. Frozen up and dressed up before being propped up in a stiff-backed chair.

It wasn't like this was too far off from his usual (Kid) wear. A suit, a button-up shirt, dress slacks, loafers. . . but they were black. He liked his fancy old-fashioned clothes to be white. With gadgets stuffed everywhere.

He also liked being able to move in them.

How had this happened? Shortly after they had moved onto sit-ups, the vents had opened up. Kaito had noticed it, and pointed it out to everyone else, who groaned when they saw the opened vents as well. Well, Nagashima and Okita had groaned. Kojima had begun to swear as violently as he could. It still hadn't been as good as the Nakamouri special, in his opinion.

Then, the vents had begun to release some kind of fog-like gas. Smoke, like the kind he used in his heists. Kaito had backed up into a corner, much like the other three were doing, and held his breath for as long as he could, but eventually, he couldn't hold it and was forced to breath in the drugged air, falling into forced sleep.

When he had woken up, he had found himself dressed up, hooked onto an IV dripping something into his arm, and sitting in a room clearly meant for some kind of little girl's dream come true. Antique chairs, bone china cups, flowers, cakes, tea. . . .

Maybe Hakuba might have liked it, but he didn't. He'd take another powerful kick from that one female detective (whom he had mistaken to be a boy) to the face rather than be here, dressed up by someone else and be imprisoned in his own body.

Who had dressed him up, anyways? It could have been either Diana-san, or the mad doc in the house. Neither was a very good option.

His back itched. He couldn't scratch it.

Damn it all.

* * *

_The lab had been bustling when she had closed up her work of the day. The rats were reacting as expected from the poison she had administered, and that meant the APTX 4869 project could be closed up soon enough. It hadn't, from the looks on the supervisor's face, been the exact product they had wanted, but it was remarkable enough. A poison that killed without any trace. _

_Shiho knew they would have her work on it again soon enough. She didn't know the exact purpose, but from the vague statements of seniors and other executives, as well as the rumours, she had gathered the general idea for this drug._

_Not that she really cared. If it weren't for the fact that her parents had first developed the drug, they wouldn't have even had her on this. It was stressful work, and while having her own lab, all the funding she required, and all the aids she needed, it took its tolls. She needed a break, before she broke._

_Grabbing her purse – designer, of course – she headed off to the small café downstairs. This entire building belonged to the organization, and anybody sent by the government for whatever reason would also be a member of the syndicate. One of the few places where the agents were open, relaxed, and unstressed._

_Or as open and relaxed and unstressed as they could be with the kinds of jobs they had, anyways._

_During the freedom, she noted that a lot of these people in black with the distinctive scent of the syndicate talked. Boasted, actually. Of what assassinations they pulled off, what bombs they made, any prisoners they had cracked while interrogating. . . ._

_Paying for her coffee with her card, Shiho sat at one of the window seats, letting her eyes rest on the scenic buildings all around this place when her ears caught a particularly loud person. What kept her attention there was the fact that she was complaining, not boasting._

_"I hate this!" the woman exclaimed, throwing some papers down onto a table. "It is ridiculously hard to get close to this doctor! I tried fifteen disguises, and every single time, something ridiculously random happens and he gets away from me, just like that!" she snapped her fingers to emphasize her point._

_Her companion giggled lightly. "Face it, Champagne. Good as you are, you can't crack Dr. Hailey. He's _famous_ in the chemistry world for being eccentric. Some of his works are pretty controversial, like that one on how alchemists were on the right track with their hunt for gold, but overall-"_

_"Amaretto, you're boring me, hon. But damn," and here, Agent Champagne leaned back in her chair. "It's like he's protected by a guardian angel or something."_

_"Well," by this time, mischief had entered Amaretto's voice. "Maybe you could call in your handsome boyfriend for some help?"_

_"Armagnac and I are _not_-!" she exclaimed incredulously before remembering at long last that they were in a public place, and even if it belonged to the organization, she really should have kept her voice a bit lower. After that, they went off into a hushed, fierce debate, and Shiho heard nothing more. _

_Not really caring, she drank the last of her coffee, tossed the cup in the trash, and walked away._

* * *

Now, in the body of Haibara Ai, the former Miyano Shiho and Sherry wondered if she should have paid better attention to that conversation as she watched the boy called Edogawa Conan jog back to the car. She had looked up Dr. Hailey after, and had read some of his papers. She didn't agree with all of his theories, but a few had been the work of absolute brilliance. From that, she had guessed that the organization wanted him, for either his brain or his contacts. Killing him wouldn't have really been beneficial, but with him in Their ranks, They would have been quite happy.

"What took you so long?" she asked, not really caring as Kudo Shinichi in his shrunken form opened the door and got in. "I saw Officer Takagi leave five minutes ago. Don't tell me they invited you in for tea."

Kudo shook his head, wiping off sweat with the back of his hands and catching his breath. "I. . ." he panted. "Found. . . a way. . . to sneak in."

And here was the part where he said something that would involve this new-found way and some stupid, dangerous plan.

"I'm going in. Here's the plan."

* * *

Kaito's ears perked. Someone was coming down the hallway. He blinked a few times, trying to make the only movements he could. _Who is that?_ He tried to ask in Morse code.

Either the others didn't understand Morse code, or there was someone in the house they knew as 'Ei'. The door opened to reveal 'Ei', who happened to be a life-sized figurine of a woman. A woman that looked a lot like the older version of that creepy auburn-haired girl who hung out with tantei-kun. Haibara Ai, if memory served to be as faithful as good-old Jii-chan was.

If this had something to do with that pint-sized danger magnet brat, Edogawa Conan was going to have his hair turned hot pink for the rest of his life.

The figurine that looked uncannily like the creepy girl was sitting on a wheelchair, and was rolled in by a man in a lab coat. Of mixed descent, he was of average height, and pretty unremarkable. Smart-looking, but he didn't have much for him except the odd look in his eyes.

This had to be the doctor. Kaito watched, able to roll his eyes to follow the doctor's movements as he wheeled his daughter to be between him and Okita. "Hope you like your new friend, Anita," the doctor patted the doll's cheek before giving all of them a stern glance. "And you boys treat her well, understand?"

Kojima rolled his eyes, but Kaito just met the doctor's eyes firmly till the other man looked away. This guy was dangerous. Insane. Psychotic. He belonged in a magician-proof straightjacket locked away in a padded white room, as much as he hated the magician-proof things.

The doctor waved, paused, acted like a father dropping off his only daughter on her first day to school for a few moments, and left dejectedly, closing the door on them, leaving four humans and a mannequin.

He blinked in Morse code again. _What now?_

Kaito didn't get an answer. He hadn't been really expecting one.


	7. Parsley

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana, Colin, Armagnac, Champagne, Cognac, Amaretto (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

* * *

"In the last three hours, a hundred policemen managed to interview and clear a surprising number of thirty people and twenty three residences from our list," Detective Sato announced, before her face fell. "That narrows the list of possible suspects down to . . . ten."

"We can't be issued _ten_ search warrants," Inspector Megure looked like a migraine was coming up under that eternally present hat of his. "Getting one alone based on the circumstantial evidence and the profile alone will be hard enough. Narrow it down further."

"Did anyone see anything suspicious down at the houses of the suspects?" Detective Sato suggested. "_Anything_? Even something just a bit out of the ordinary might help."

No one really volunteered information, fearing that they'd look like an absolute idiot not just in front of everyone, but also the very popular female detective.

Takagi took a chance and raised his hand. "Err, this wasn't on the house itself, but one of my suspects had Conan-kun there. He thought it was the house where the kidnapper lived."

No court would have taken up a request for a warrant based on the sole factor of a seven-year old boy being around the suspect. The Police Force in Beika – and, for that matter, any place the smarter-than-average boy visited to more than once – knew better than that. Just the fact that Edogawa Conan was there meant that something would happen at the suspect's house. Whether it was related to the kidnappings or not . . . .

They'd find out. "Which house was it?" Inspector Megure barked as everyone immediately began to get ready.

Takagi flipped open the notebook to the marked page. "Dr. Andrew Hailey's, sir!"

Three people were already working on it, pulling up files from the police database.

"Anything else about him?"

Takagi ran his thumb down the page. "He had a housekeeper, a woman named Diana Smith. Partly foreign."

A search done on Diana Smith brought up a missing person's profile with the picture of the very same woman. "Sir, we can get that warrant through this."

"Get the files and go. I want that warrant in my hands by the end of this hour," the inspector ordered. "And someone call her family to inform them that she's alive!"

* * *

Kaito frowned. Was it his imagination . . . or were his fingertips twitching?

No, he wasn't hallucinating with hope. The tips of his fingers were actually trembling, and although they were like a dug addict's, it was movement.

It felt beautiful.

But the movement – small as it was – got him thinking. He'd always had a fast metabolism – the reason why he could eat ice cream as much as he wanted and still never get fat – and his physical fitness was close to the top. His body must have been wearing out the drugs faster than they were being dripped into him.

With what felt like an effort to lift a building off the ground, Kaito slowly and deliberately tapped his finger against the table. It wasn't much – the drugs were still coming into his system – but it caught the others' attentions. Judging from their widened eyes, it wasn't something that they could do.

Chalk one up for the Kaitou Kid.

Sending a thank you to Lady Luck, he began to move his fingertips as much as he could. Maybe if he could move them far enough, he'd be able to eventually reach and get the IV drip off of his arm, wear the remaining drugs out, and then help the others. Okita and Nagashima would probably be able to take on anything thrown at them, and Kojima could tag along behind them, scaring people with his swearing.

His thumb joined in on the weak scratches his fingers were making as they tried to pull his arm to the source of his paralysis.

* * *

Diana-san's husband had driven over to the station as soon as he had gotten the phone call. "You found my wife?" he demanded the moment they brought him in.

"Yes."

"Where is she?" he demanded before they could quite give an explanation. The man was also a person of mixed descent like his wife, and would have been very attractive with his fine features, curling light brown hair and green eyes had it not been for the obvious lack of care he gave to his appearance, as well as his nervous twitching and the deep, dark bags under his eyes. "She's okay, right?"

"Colin-san, I'm going to have to ask you to take a deep breath," Sato advised. "Sit down, and breath. Would you like some coffee?"

The restless man shook his head, and all but collapsed into one of the uncomfortable seats. "No, no coffee . . . ."

"This is your wife, correct?" Takagi showed him the photo of Diana-san. Colin took one look and gave a furious nod. "When did you last see her?"

This was just to make sure that he wasn't some fraud trying to benefit from this. Even with the seemingly-proper papers, there were still quite a lot of people – jerks – who liked to take advantage of other people's confusions and sorrows. If his information matched, then he could be trusted.

"I last saw her two months ago when . . . when she was loading her things into the trunk of the taxi, before she was about to go on her trip to her mother's."

That matched the report. "Why was she leaving?"

"About four months ago, our son, he was at the day care center – he was only two – and he fell down and hit his head on – on a metal slide, and he died at the hospital. The therapist suggested after . . . about two months of therapy that she spend some time away, to, to clear her head, and get comfort from a maternal source. I was going to meet her up at my mother-in-law's a few days later, but then when Diana's mother called to ask when she was coming, I tried calling her, and she - she wouldn't pick up."

He was definitely getting edgy, like a cornered, starved animal. Sato stepped in, deciding that he was the person he claimed to be. "Colin-san, when was the last time you got sleep?"

"I don't know," he groaned. "You'll get her back, right? Safe?"

And this was where the speculations came in. "Colin-san," Takagi tried to be gentle. "We think that your wife is part of the kidnappings going around. Have you heard about the Clone Kidnappings?"

"Diana would never," he drew his own conclusion at the question, nearly rising out of his seat at the implied suggestion. "She can't even kill a spider!"

"She might have been forced to take part," Takagi added in, remembering her pale, scared face. "If the kidnapper threatened someone close to her, then she might have felt that she had to."

Inspector Megure was a bit harsher. "We can't completely rule out the chances of it being consensual. Would you like to be escorted back?"

Colin Smith took a deep breath before releasing it. He repeated the action several times till he looked somewhat composed on the outside. Instead of a man who looked ready to jump off a building screaming, he looked like he'd settle for ripping his hair out. Not much of an improvement. "Just find her," he begged. "Please."

* * *

"This is your brilliant idea?" Haibara Ai demanded as Kudo began to cover the windows with duct tape. "Breaking into the house of a deranged kidnapping doctor?"

He didn't even power up his shoes before taking a kick at the glass window. His sneakered foot just bounced off like it was a wall. "Reinforced glass," he noted, and turned his shoes on. "This might make some noise."

His foot made contact with the window again, only this time, with the amount of force put behind it, his kick-empowering shoes pushed through and broke the window. The sound was muffled, but it had still been loud.

She looked around. No one sneaking around the woods – other than themselves, of course – with a sadistic smile and a chainsaw. "This is completely unnecessary."

"C'mon, Haibara," he said as he began to clear away any glass fragments that would result in them being cut. "Where's your adventurous spirit?"

"Oppressed by my sense of survival, and my common sense," she deadpanned. "Two things you sadly lack."

"Yeah, well," he wriggled in through the small space he had created. "I told you – I have a nose for this kind of stuff."

"It's more like you're a magnet for danger," but she climbed in after him, because he was ridiculously reckless and stupid, even if he was a genius detective, and someone needed to keep an eye on him.

Kudo looked around. "Guess this is the spare room."

"Or, you know, the gas chamber, for the unwanted guests."

He shot her an exasperated look before turning the knob. "Shh."

She briefly weighed the pros and cons of murdering him before deciding to let him live. His detective friends would probably find out it was her, anyways. Far too many of them around him.

Outside the completely empty room with the broken window, the hallway turned two ways. Kudo jerked his head to the closest direction. "I'll go this way. Call if you get into trouble."

"Likewise," she replied before making her way down the left side of the hallway. There were a few rooms. Every one or two metres there was a door, all labelled neatly. 'Office', 'Library', 'Sewing Room', 'Storage'.

She turned a corner and stopped in front of one door. Unlike the others, white and labelled with a small, plain, boring plastic sign next to the door, this one had been painted pink. The flower-decorated plaque proudly proclaimed this room to belong to 'Anita'. Around five metres down the hall, there was one last door before the hallway became a dead end.

She walked up to the last door, but didn't open it. Unlike Kudo, she had no intention on checking inside of each and every room. That not only became stressful on her nerves, but she had no way of defending herself. No super-powered shoes, no ball-dispensing belt, no tranquilizer-shooting watch . . . though the first two wouldn't really do her as much good as it did for Kudo, she admit.

And speaking of the Great Detective of the East, she heard footsteps coming down. About to call out his name and a snarky comment, she paused, dread filling her stomach. The footsteps were too heavy, too loud to belong to a seven-year old child.

Stay, and get caught by a most-likely merciless man who had kidnapped people for some unknown reason. Or . . . she eyed the lone door behind her.

Praying to whichever god was patron to adult-shrunken-back-to-children, she opened the last door as quietly as she could and snuck in.

* * *

_The man codenamed as 'Armagnac' came out of the interrogation room with a disgusted look. "He threw up," he said aloud, informing the other three in the room of what they already knew._

_The woman with brown hair looked up at him from her files. "Will he work with us?" Champagne asked. If he wouldn't, she might as well have killed him at his kidnapping three months ago. It would have certainly saved her a lot of sleeping time. Beauty sleep was essential, especially to her day job, and whatever god there was in the world knew that she had lost a lot of it because of this so-called bio-chemistry genius._

_A glance through the one-sided glass showed a shivering, broken man strapped to his chair. "Does it look like he'll be working on any chemical formulas for us?" Armagnac gestured._

_"So mean," Champagne curled her lip. "You're the one who scared him."_

_The other man, the one with the highest rank amongst their team of four, didn't even pay attention. He was too focused on the last woman, the one in the lab coat with long hair. "Amaretto?" his voice was soft, and gentle. Armagnac smiled his usual dead smirk at the irony. The demon who ordered the deaths of hundreds, Cognac, was being gentle._

_The scientist looked tired, but she still gave her husband a smile. "It's the only way."_

_"A risky way," Armagnac wiped his hand with a handkerchief before he carelessly tossed it away. The silk, expensive, limited brand handkerchief fluttered down onto the floor, wet with blood and bile. "Can't imagine Gin agreeing to it. There's an actual chance of – brace yourselves – _failure_."_

_"That Person agreed," his grip on his wife's hand tightened. "It's a second chance for you, Amaretto. Be careful."_

_She gave a slight laugh, one on the edge of hysteria. "As long as I don't have to go back to . . . back to the Stem Project . . . I'll do anything."_


	8. Rosemary

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana, Colin, Armagnac, Champagne, Cognac, Amaretto (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

* * *

The door opened just when his hand was at his other wrist. A few more minutes, and he would have gotten to the IV drip.

'Shit,' he thought-swore. All that work, and everything he'd been working towards was about to be reduced to absolute nothing. He felt like tearing his hair out, only he couldn't. And since that was the reason for his immobility, it really just accomplished nothing. Except maybe an impenetrable Poker Face.

And then . . .

His eyes fell on the newcomer, and his brain registered the image, consciousness taking a trip down memory lane to the Kirin's Horn heist, when he'd spent two hours running from the police, wondering how they were finding him so easily till Jii had magically appeared and ripped the sign alerting everyone of his identity off his back. Hard to forget details from a heist when his very own tricks had been used against him to an extent where his entire body was aching by the next day.

Even harder to forget about the girl that looked identical to the doll currently having a tea party with him.

'What? _WHAT_?! That's the creepy girl! Why the hell is she here?!'

He gritted his teeth. Where there was smoke, there was fire. Where the crew of child detectives were. . . . 'Tantei-kun, prepare to say hello to an eternity of pink hair.'

Okita and Kojima, apparently, also found the random appearance of a seven-year old girl – who looked almost exactly like the mannequin they were supposed to be 'entertaining' – quite unbelievable, because their eye sizes doubled in size.

Nagashima blinked questioningly at him. The baseball player had his back to the door, and he couldn't see who had just snuck into the room.

Well, he was going to have to live with that curiosity, because Kaito had no wish to give an explanation via Morse code through blinking. He had more pressing issues, and no one else here other than him knew Morse code (morons). His ears, sensitive due to his line of business, picked up the sounds of someone walking down the hall. Apparently Okita heard it too, because he suddenly looked at the door with wide eyes. The girl – Haibara Ai – glanced at the door she had just closed, hearing the same thing, before darting under the safety of the bureau at the corner of the room.

The footsteps were now loud enough for the other two to pick up, and when the door opened, they greeted the doctor with forced silence and wary looks.

He obviously didn't care about them. "Anita," he said, all smiles and rainbows, before his expression turned into one of pained duty. "Boys."

Oh, like _they_ were so enthusiastic to be here.

"Daddy's sorry," he apologized to the lifeless doll that could have been the older version of the girl hiding under the desk in the corner. "But he has to take you somewhere safe. Bad people are coming, yes they are . . . and daddy wants you to be safe."

Kaito just kept staring at the doctor. He didn't let his eyes flicker to the direction where Haibara Ai was hiding – she must have hidden under the desk to not be seen by the doctor. She knew something about him, but he didn't know she was here yet. Judging from the stories he heard (both from Inspector Nakamouri as 'Kaito-kun' and in disguise amongst police officers during Kid heists, of course) the Detective Boys got into a lot of trouble. It wouldn't have surprised him if they had unintentionally ended up being the trigger for the doctor going on a random spree of kidnappings.

The doctor wheeled 'Anita' out, and came back in a few minutes. "I'm afraid you boys will have to hide as well," he said, though there wasn't much apology in his voice.

And so, Kaito found himself being wheeled to some kind of closet that turned out to be an entrance to a downward sloping tunnel that lead to some kind of bomb shelter – a bomb shelter with prison cells. Six of them.

The doctor placed them in separate cells, and (much to his extreme frustration and the worst FML moment of his life) unplugged the drip from the needle in his arm. Because the extreme annoyance and devastation he had felt when his efforts for trying to free them all from this place had been smashed to dust wasn't enough. No, now the doctor had to unplug him from the drug dripping cursed thing, just like that.

Kaito felt, just for that small space of time, like all his efforts in making his hand crawl desperately towards that stupid needle in his arm had all been for nothing.

It was, but that didn't keep him depressed for long. When the doctor closed the bomb shelter's door (and locked it) Kaito felt his hand's mobility return.

With some difficulty, he clenched his fist. And then opened it. Close, open, close, open.

Eventually, it stopped trembling like a hand belonging to a drug addict. By that time – it could have been hours, his internal clock was messed up and probably wrong– he could move most of his upper body.

Good enough. He'd crawl.

Kaito took a deep breath, and threw himself off his wheelchair, meeting the ground with the palms of his hand, bending his elbows, and limply rolling on the concrete floor to lessen the damage and pain. He wasn't hurt.

"Ya arrigh'?" a slurred voice floated towards him from somewhere. It sounded like Okita was regaining the use of his tongue. He and Nagashima would recover faster – they exercised regularly, and were sportsmen. Kojima would have to take longer to wear out the drugs in his system.

"Yeah," he mumbled back as he began to crawl towards the lock using only his arms. With the amount of time he spent on that hang glider of his, it was a piece of cake.

Cake. When he got home, he'd get cake. Chocolate cake. And chocolate ice cream. And chocolate ice cream soda, because he liked it.

But no fish. He shuddered at the thought of the scaly evil things, and then pulled himself up using the bars of his jail cell. The lock was large, bulky, and old-fashioned, the kind that required a key. Unless it had some kind of special electronic chip in it like the one they used in the cooking show Aoko liked to watch, he could pop it open with wire-

Crap. Major, serious, god-damned crap.

Kaito groaned, and smashed his head against the steel bar, careful to not hit it too hard. A concussion would do no one good. Wire. He didn't have wire. Or lockpicks. Actually, all he had was the fancy costume on him, and fat lot of good it did him now. He'd have traded it for a paper clip.

Falling off Touto Tower with Aoko handcuffed to that motorcycle had definitely been easier.

"Hey," he called as loud as he could. It wasn't that loud, but he knew the other three could hear him. "Any of you have some kind of wire on you?"

"Aur yu sturpid?" the slurred but still rude voice of Kojima replied first.

"No."

"No."

Damn it, damn it, _damn it,_ he was so close! So close! He began to raise his hand to his temples, feeling a migraine come on, when he saw the needle still stuck in his arm.

That's right. There was the needle. And if he remembered correctly . . . .

He hastily crawled back with mostly his arms and some help from his legs, and knocked the IV drip to the ground. Like he'd thought, the clear plastic bag of the paralyzing drug had been tied to the pole with wire. A length that would fit into the lock, and still have some left over to grab onto. They probably didn't use wire like this for IV drips in actual hospitals, but Kaito wasn't complaining about the difference here.

He untied it as quickly as his fingers could before crawling – this time on his arms and knees – back to the lock.

"We're," he grunted as he set out to work with the wire and the needle in his hands. "Getting – out – of – this – place."

Two weak cheers and one moan that could have meant anything rang out in the room after his declaration.

* * *

All four of the boys – all practically mirror images of Kudo-kun – were wheeled out, one by one. None of them betrayed her presence in the room, though, judging by their lack of movement and the IVs hooked up to them, they really couldn't tell on her any more than they could run out of this place.

Ai stretched, trying to get rid of the cramp in her thigh. When she didn't hear the doctor come back, she crawled out from beneath the bureau. Okay, so Dr. Hailey was guilty, just like the theory based on circumstantial evidence had said. Great. Now she was going to grab Kudo-kun and get out of here.

She fumbled for her badge, and turned it on. "Kudo-kun?" she spoke into it, and waited. No response. He probably had it off so it didn't go off in a crucial moment and give away his presence.

She pinned it back to her shirt and left the room quietly. The hallways seemed much longer than they'd been on the way here, and her footsteps sounded so much louder.

In front of Anita's room, she paused. The doctor had called the doll (the thing that looked disturbingly like her real body) 'Anita'. Had he gone mad, and decided to treat one of his creations as a living, breathing being? Treat it like a daughter?

Her own parents were dead. Her sister had been murdered. Yet she didn't go around naming dolls after her dead family.

But then again, she'd never really liked dolls.

She shook herself out of it. Enough of this random, wistful thinking. It was time to get out of here.

Ai walked down and turned at the corner of the hallway, and came face to face with the mad genius doctor.

* * *

Chiba ran in, chubby face red with sudden exercise he wasn't really used to. "I've got the warrant!" he panted. "Just like you wanted, sir!"

Inspector Megure snatched it out of his hands. "Let's go!" he roared, waving the piece of paper that would allow them to get inside the property of one Dr. Andrew Hailey.

Takagi hastily grabbed his notebook and shoved it into his pocket. "Please wait here, Smith-san," he told the worried husband of the missing woman. "Should anything go wrong, no civilian should be there."

The man's eyes widened with panic. "_There's not going to be anything going wrong_," Takagi added with emphasis before the frazzled man could die of stress and/or overexcited nerves. "But an extra presence – a civilian – would distract the police, and then something could go wrong."

Colin Smith slumped. "You're saying I'll get in the way."

He could have been nice, but that really took up time. "Kind of . . . ."

The corners of his mouth twitched. "I understand. Just get my wife back, would you?"

Takagi blinked. That had been surprisingly easy. He was very reasonable, and thinking logical despite the pressing circumstances he was in. Admirable. "I will. I swear."

Then he hurried off before everyone could leave him behind. Sato gave him an earful on getting distracted. "You'll get killed that way," she scolded. "You want to be known as the guy that died while not paying proper attention?"

"No, ma'am," he sighed, but couldn't quite help the smile that crawled up onto his face.

With the distraction of the mass-moving officers, no one paid attention to Colin Smith, who went back to sitting in the waiting area. With a surprisingly blank face for a man in his supposed position, he took out a cell phone and dialed a number.

The person on the other end picked up immediately. _"Amaretto," _she whispered, like she was afraid of being overheard.

"It's Cognac," his face relaxed for a second at her voice before hardening again. "Your time is nearly up. Do you have the objectives?"

_"I do, and they're secure."_

"Good. Do what you must."

_"I will,"_ Amaretto paused. _"I love you."_

Cognac took a deep breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I love you too. Now get back without dying, and then we'll celebrate."

She hung up. He had no doubt that the phone would be destroyed.

The next number was one he'd memorized when they had first taught him the number sequence. If punched into an older cell phone, the type that made different noises when the buttons were pressed, the number would have sounded like the first few notes of a children's song.

His cell phone was a smart phone, and didn't have that function. He typed in a message reporting Amaretto's success at the mission she'd been sent on, and pressed the section of the screen that would give the command for the message to be dispatched. Within moments, he received a reply.

_'You won't get many favours from me for a while.'_

The warning was clear. Insubordination wouldn't be tolerated again, not even with a supervisor or a high-ranking scientist.

Cognac pocketed his phone and went back to being Colin Smith, a man frantically worried about the safety of his wife.

* * *

Sorry for the late update . . . but on the bright side, I finished two side stories - like Clockwork Relations - in this series, and got the outline for the sequel written out. I'll publish them when I complete this story.


	9. Thyme

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana, Colin, Armagnac, Champagne, Cognac, Amaretto (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

* * *

Shinichi stepped back from the file cabinet and dusted his hands. This was his fifth cabinet and there wasn't anything important or relevant to his objective in it. Thirty minutes of his life wasted on crawling through dusty rooms and furniture to look for an unknown needle in the metaphoric haystack. Not very productive.

Maybe it was time to eavesdrop a bit on the two known residents of the house.

Shinichi had four bugs activated at the moment. The two tossed in the front room, and the two stuck on the doctor and Diana-san. Since he was now inside the house, the bugs in the front door area were no longer necessary. He pressed the button that would deactivate them and turned his attention onto the other two still active.

The listening device on Dr. Hailey gave him nothing but muffled thumps. He was walking around somewhere, but he wasn't talking. No use listening to him.

The housekeeper didn't prove to be better. Her footsteps were softer than the doctors, but like him she wasn't making any sounds.

Shinichi was about to go back into digging when Diana-san stopped walking. A shrill, sharp bell went off for a few seconds before it was abruptly shut off.

_"Amaretto,"_ his bug on Diana-san crackled. There were some more muffled sounds transmitted and he turned the volume up using the small dial, not wanting to miss anything. Amaretto was a type of liquor made with either almonds or apricot pits.

He had been right. The Black Organization had gotten to him. For some reason They had let him go back to his house - maybe he could only work in his environment? - but with one of Their own keeping an eye on him, most likely in case he tried to run away or slack off on work. And who better as a spy on an introverted person than a housekeeper?

Diana spoke again. _"I do, and they're secure." _The person on the other end must have asked about something. Something she had been sent to secure. Something or someone.

But what was secure? His hand went warily to the self-destruct remote installed on his glasses. If the bug was found by her he'd detonate it but he needed more information at the moment. Information he was having a hard time getting because the bug wasn't doing a very good job on picking up the fake housekeeper's soft voice.

Shinichi strained his ears just enough to catch the next sentence. _"I will. I love you."_

Wait, _what?!_

Through the muffling of the apron surrounding the bug he heard a muted crunch. She must have smashed the phone.

He shouldn't have been surprised by the declaration of love by the housekeeper. Haibara's parents were both in the organization, and they had two daughters together. He knew for sure that the shrunken girl's mother had loved her, and the sisters had had a deep bond with each other. That was enough to convince him that members of the organization _were_ capable of feeling love. He just didn't understand how murdering people could act like what they were doing wasn't immoral and face innocent children and their loved ones with a smiling face, but that could have just been him. After all, he never did understand why people killed each other.

Diana-san – Amaretto – must have been talking to a lover, a spouse or a member of her family. Someone she cared about that was also in the Organization. They were up to something, as usual, and They had what they wanted here based on the one-sided conversation he had heard.

If They had what they wanted Amaretto had no need to stay behind here anymore. She'd leave as soon as she could get away without being suspicious. What were the chances of Them destroying this house and everyone within the walls to get rid of any evidence left behind by her?

He knew the answer; very high.

Just when he had come to that conclusion, a loud exploding sound came from somewhere in the wing Haibara had been in. He got to his feet. That did not sound good. What it _did_ sound like was a bomb going off and in his experience, bombs meant police swarming over everything.

Shinichi reached for his badge, only to curse when he realized that he had left it behind back in the agency. All he could do now was track Haibara with his glasses. He turned on the tracking function and frowned at what he saw. Haibara's badge was moving to the west.

Two more tell-tale sounds of an explosion smashed through the house, and he felt the file cabinet next to him shake. This was getting bad.

He looked out of the window to where the glasses indicated her position. Nothing was there except for a few bushes and trees.

What the hell?

* * *

"How th' hell didya do that?" Okita looked at Kaito as he stood outside his cell in all of his freed glory, impromptu lock picks in one hand and the opened lock in the other.

Kaito shrugged it off as he began to work on the teen swordsman's lock. If the doc came back before he could free all of them Kaito wanted someone who could fight covering his back while he freed the others. He cursed when his needle snapped in the lock and scratched his hand. "Give me your needle and wire," he ordered.

Okita removed his needle from his arm and passed it through the bars before dragging the IV over to retrieve the wire tie. "Yer like th' Kaitou Kid or somethin'," he commented as he passed him the wire as well.

Kaito didn't flinch. He didn't blink or make any shocked sounds. His hands were steady and moved exactly the way they were supposed to and the rest of his body didn't make any surprised, sudden movements. In short, he didn't give anyone any indication that Okita might have touched upon a sensitive or a secret topic. "Thanks, he's one of my two top role models in life and magic."

The swordsman's face said it all; _interesting role model you have there. _"Who's th' other one?"

"My dad," the lock swung open with a smooth, beautiful click. His inner magician couldn't help it and he took a small bow. "Voila. You're welcome. Grab anything that could help you."

Okita nodded and began to dissect the IV stand, stripping off the wheels and the rack on the top to get the metal pole that could serve as a weapon in the right hands.

Kaito went to work on the baseball player's lock. One of the things he learned in the two days they had spent trapped together that Nagashima was a batter on his baseball team. Who better to be violent with a metal pole than a baseball batter? A skilled swordsman, maybe, but since Okita was free Nagashima was the next best choice. "Needle and wire, if you don't mind," he said after Okita's needle snapped in the lock. Damn things. The wires that had been used to tie the bags of drugs had been too malleable and couldn't pick the locks without some kind of stiffer support. The needle could do that, but it was ridiculously brittle. If he ever had to go to the hospital, he was going to refuse any painkillers. He wasn't going to let some quack in a white coat stick him with a needle that broke _that_ easily.

Nagashima handed them to him obligingly. "What's the plan?"

Kaito paused in his picking before doubling his speed to make up for his hesitation. "We get out of here."

The baseball player shot him a look. "Obviously. What I want to know is _how_?"

He shrugged just as the lock clicked open. He'd have been much faster at unlocking these with better picks, but at the moment this was all he really had at his disposal. He supposed it was better than toothpaste. "I'll figure something out."

Kaitou Kid always did, after all.

* * *

"Anita?" the doctor looked at her in wonder and an emotion that looked familiar. Love. Care. Affection. The things that had always been in Akemi's eyes when her older sister had looked at her. "You can walk?"

If the situation hadn't been so serious she would have glared at him with her hands planted on her hips and told him that his priorities needed to be straightened out. Oh, here's a girl with reddish-brown hair! Look! She's on her own two feet! Let's just blatantly ignore the fact that she looked ten years younger than 'Anita'!

Ai suspected that his mind was unravelling far beyond proper functioning abilities and would have said something about that, but she was a bit shocked at seeing the guy that was supposed to be anywhere but here. Kudo-kun was the danger magnet here, not her.

She was trying to figure this out, but the doctor started to speak again. "Daddy knew it," he said proudly, tearing up. "Daddy knew that if daddy completed the drug you'd be alright!"

What drug? The inner chemist in her reared at _that word_. "What drug?" she asked.

He brightened. "Are you interested in learning about drugs?"

No, but she was good at it. Her standing before him was a prime example of her skills with biochemistry. That answer, though, probably wouldn't be the right response. "Yes."

An explosion came from the other side of the house. Dr. Hailey looked up, and then down at her again. "We have to leave," he said solemnly. "The bad people are back again."

"The bad people?"

"Yes. Anita, the bad people. They always wear black. Don't trust the crows!"

A chill went down her back. "Um, daddy?" she asked, trying to pretend.

"Yes?"

"What kind of drug did you make?"

He threw on a lab coat and grabbed a briefcase before taking her hand. "I'll tell you on our way."

So maybe he wasn't too unravelled. Or at least he was sane enough to put her in a position of decisions. If she didn't go along with him she didn't learn about his new miracle drugs. To go along with him would be an extremely stupid thing to do, almost worthy of Kudo-kun's irresponsible actions. Who knew where he'd be taking her, or what he'd do to her?

She ran along with him anyways. "What kind of drug?"

He stopped abruptly when he saw a burning room. "It's dangerous," he remarked in an extremely casual voice before picking her up in his arms. "Don't worry, Anita! Daddy will protect you!"

"What kind of drug?" she asked again, this time shouting to try and make her point. She had no idea what Anita was supposed to act like, but she had no intention on sitting still and smiling vacantly like a doll.

The doctor ran through the hallway, ignoring the smoke beginning to gather. He stopped in front of a closet and pushed away all the clothes to reveal a hidden door. "The first one is a refined antipsychotic with decreased side effects."

The first. She didn't have much interest nor need for improved antipsychotic medication at the moment. He was the one who probably needed it more than her. No, what she wanted to know about was the implied other medication he made for 'her'. "What about the others?"

He picked her up again and began to run, holding her close to his coffee-stained sweater that smelt like a disgusting mix of sweat, old food and time. Behind them she heard two more explosions and the sound of something large and heavy falling apart. Kudo-kun would have gotten out of there, she told herself fiercely. She had to believe that.

"One of the last two," he wheezed, sounding like he was dying of a serious lung disease. He wasn't very athletic. "Kills – without – trace."

Her heart nearly stopped but she forced herself to continue asking. "And the other one?" her voice shook at the end of the question. What he described was APTX 4869 without a doubt. The drug her parents had been developing, the project and research she had taken over . . . the drug that had been the reason for her shrinking. That wasn't something he had made all from scratch. APTX was evil in her mind, but it also represented her parents and the hours of hard work and effort she had spent in the organization's laboratory trying to connect with them through their left behind work. Him just claiming the drug as something he had made to heal his daughter (how his logic for that claim worked she didn't know, it was a poison, not some miracle drug) rubbed her the wrong way.

Dr. Hailey was now running down the tunnel at a pace a tortoise could easily beat, but he didn't put her down. "The last one," he panted. "Is the most special one of all."

* * *

The police found Diana Smith the housekeeper curled up and shaking outside the burning house. The woman was, to put it in simple terms, a nervous wreck.

The emergency dispatch had been called by someone within the house claiming that her employer was the Clone Kidnapper and that there were bombs placed within the house. Now they had a fire truck and a bomb squad along with the three ambulances and twenty five police officers going to the house.

While Takagi got to Diana-san the fire truck and firefighters began to work on the flames that were spreading.

"Diana-san?" he asked the housekeeper. "Do you remember me?"

She looked up, and recognition flickered in her reddening eyes. "Officer Takagi," she sniffed, wiping away tears as she blew her nose into a handkerchief. "I just sentenced my husband to death."

"What do you mean?"

"The doctor said that he had Colin locked up, and that he'd kill him if I didn't do what he told me. But I had to call the police . . . and now he's going to kill him because I couldn't find him before this."

That was the reason why she hadn't called for help in the house. Fear for her husband's sake. "Diana-san, your husband is perfectly safe," Takagi said slowly, trying to sound as reassuring and as truthful as possible. "He's back at the station, worried out of his mind for you."

She met his eyes with a startled look. "He's safe?" she repeated.

"Always has been."

"So . . ." she frowned. "So I didn't have to . . . ." she couldn't finish that. Takagi had to catch her as she fell forwards in a faint.

"Medic!"

* * *

Dear god, I could have sworn this story was supposed to be around five chapters . . . .


	10. Going Home with One Loss

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Diana, Colin, Armagnac, Champagne, Cognac, Amaretto (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado. Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

* * *

Kaito leaned away from the lock that prevented Kojima Daisuke from joining the rest of them in freedom. "You," he announced. "Have the worst luck. Ever."

"Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don't know," the trapped teen snarled.

For once, Kaito didn't blame Kojima from being his usual self. While he'd been trying to unlock the damn lock, Nagashima's needle had snapped. He had taken Kojima's as a replacement but the last needle had snapped before he could even pop his lock open. Cheap second grade material. Those were good for nothing.

The cranky teen really had no luck. He had been the first one to be kidnapped, the one without any special talents and now he was the one who was still stuck inside his cage while others were free. Kaito felt a bit responsible about him being in his situation. After all, he had prioritized Okita and Nagashima before Kojima. If he had freed them in a different order, he wouldn't be stuck in his cage. Sure, someone else would be the one locked up and stuck, but still.

"Can't you open that with the wires?" Nagashima asked.

Kaito shook his head. "Not on this lock. It might work on the door, though. How about trying to find something outside?"

Hopefully, they'd find a phone that could be used to call the police with. If not . . . well, a surprising number of trivial things could be a lock pick in his hands.

Okita agreed, but Nagashima didn't really like the idea of leaving someone behind even for a short while. Kaito figured it had to do with baseball being a team sport and all. Kendo and phantom thieving were more along the line of solo sports.

In the end, though, even he saw the advantages of that strategy. Metal poles in hand the three of them ran up the slope of the bunker they were trapped in. The hidden closet door of the bunker was a lock impossible to pick with the things he had, but that didn't matter because apparently the doctor had been too lazy to even close the door properly.

"Seriously?" he muttered as they just pushed the closet door open and walked through into the hallway. He stopped in front of the room he remembered to be the tearoom and opened the door.

Inside, only Anita sat there, smiling that creepy blank painted on smile. Ignoring the dressed up mannequin Kaito first checked if the girl was still hiding under the desk – she wasn't – before beginning to search the room for something that could pick the lock and let Kojima out. A needle! Oh, wait, too short. A toothpick? Nah, it would break within the lock and jar the entire thing.

A thought struck him and he ran to the sitting doll before examining its hair. Something glinted under layers of auburn hair and he snatched the hairpin out with a triumphant crow. "This is perfect!"

Kaito reached out towards the room's doorknob when an explosion went off.

* * *

". . . put me down."

Dr. Hailey continued to run. "Hm? Sorry Anita, daddy didn't hear you."

"Put me down," she ordered again, this time using a louder, firmer voice. "Now."

Blinking, the doctor stopped his sluggish running with a confused look. "Anita?"

She struggled out of his arms and scrambled to the ground. "I'm not Anita."

"W-why, of course you are!" he tried to laugh but it sounded fake to her ears. "You'll always be daddy's little girl."

"My name," she ground out. "Is Haibara Ai. Or Miyano Shiho. _Not_ Anita Hailey and you are most definitely _not_ my father."

She almost felt bad when she saw the devastated look on his face. Almost.

That feeling of pity disappeared when he reached into his lab coat pocket. She swore inside her head as she just noticed the bulge of the pocket, a harsh bulge in a very specific shape.

He pulled out a gun. "Good-bye," he smiled. "Anita."

* * *

_Oh god no._

Kaito ran out into the hallway and dashed towards the closet they had just been in. Outside the hidden bunker entrance, it took all he had not to cry out in frustration and regret at the sight of smoke beginning to pour out of the painted door. God, there had been explosives in the room.

If the smoke was just beginning to spread, then he could still go in there, open the lock – the hairpin was a much easier tool to work with – and grab Kojima before he died of smoke inhalation.

"Kojima!" he yelled into the bunker where the teen was still locked up in. "Kojima!"

Another explosion went off instead of the answer he had been waiting for and the amount of smoke coming out began to increase. Eyes squinted to see past the opaque gray curtain the smoke cast over his vision, Kaito looked into the bunker and saw a reddish glow. Fire.

He squinted further and saw some kind of liquid spilt on the ground. Gasoline? That would explain the fire in the empty cement bunker. Other than the crackling of the flames and his own breathing he couldn't hear anything. No screaming, no swearing and no signs of life.

They'd only been gone for five minutes or so.

"He's dead, ain't he?" Okita said quietly next to him. If there was doubt before, there wasn't any now.

Kaito nodded, mouth dry. Maybe if he had looked into the doll's hair first he could have . . . . "We need to get out of here," he choked out. Images of Jack Connery, lying there on the dirty floor of the warehouse with blood pooling around his head swam in his mind. His imagination provided pictures of Kojima's pieces flung around everywhere in his cell. Not again, not again not again not again not again . . . .

He turned around and practically fled from the scene. Okita kept up with him, looking worried but thankfully silent.

Nagashima muttered what could have been a prayer before following them. The tearoom was the last room at their end of the hallway, so their only choice was to go down the opposite direction. Their bunker wasn't the only place burning; other rooms had smoke pouring out, and his work with the struggling would have all been for nothing if they died because they inhaled too much smoke.

"Don't breathe the smoke," he warned before taking in a lungful of relatively smoke-free air. Relatively smoke-free air Kojima Daisuke would never be able to inhale again because he – Kuroba Kaito – hadn't been able to open his lock like he had with the other three and let him die trapped like an animal at the zoo. In the end it was his fault all over again for not being competent enough.

His glove slipping off his hand and Jack Connery falling with the white piece of cloth still held tightly in his hand to his death. Kojima's needle snapping in the lock because he had rushed, tried to make better time for the sake of his magician's pride. Not again. Two were more than enough. He wasn't going to lose the other two because of something he failed to do. "Ready?" he asked, using some of his air up.

The other two nodded.

He ran instead of speaking. Nagashima and Okita kept up as they dashed down the hallway. How long could they go? A minute? Two? How long with their bodies going through the sudden, unexpected running and burning up the oxygen in their lungs?

Kaito exhaled and refilled his lungs again at a relatively clean spot somewhat free of smoke and heard the sharp inhaling from behind. Good, they had the common sense to exchange air.

Now how did they get out of-

The next thing he knew he was on the ground with a dazed head and a swimming room. A voice yelled at him, but he was having a hard time making out the words. He began to feel pain in the back of his head and groaned through gritted teeth. Someone – Nagashima – grabbed under his arms and pulled him up to his feet. He winced at the movement and tried to not throw up at the disorienting feeling in his head. Okita was moving around and his head hurt just looking at him swimming in the room. Swimming like fish. He didn't like fish.

The ringing in his head lessened a bit and he made out a firefighter walking towards them with a door at his back. The door. Behind the bulky figure of the man he could see the outside world. They'd be safe. He just wished his head would stop ringing.

_"You alright, son?"_ the man inside the suit bellowed through his protective gear. His voice came out a bit distorted because of that helmet and oxygen thing – he couldn't remember the name – or maybe that was just his head in general. He bet he could make a better distorted voice without using any equipment. _"Hey, I found them!"_

Three other men in the same garb ran in with heavy clunking footsteps towards them. Kaito winced at the sound. Couldn't they walk quietly?

_"We'll get you out of here,"_ the first firefighter promised. _"Where's the other one? There were four of you, right?"_

Four. There were . . . two? Three? What was the number? All he could remember was four and that there was one missing. Kaito grabbed onto him. "Kojima," he gasped. "He's . . . ."

Okita shoved him towards the exit and he winced again at the jarring movement to his head. "He's dead," the swordsman said instead.

The firefighter waved him out. The burning building was no place to have a questioning session and they all knew it. Outside the house. Kaito was taken to some kind of uncomfortable portable bed – a gurney? – where he had someone's gloved but cold hands prodding at his sore head. A light shone at his eyes before flicking off.

"He's got a mild concussion," the woman with the cool hands noted. An ice pack replaced her cold fingers. "Not too bad. He just needs some rest. What happened?"

While Nagashima explained that the light fixture above them had fallen onto the back of his head during their escapes, Kaito groaned in pain as his head actually began to throb.

The medic abandoned Nagashima instantly. "Hey, kid!" she called, eyes looking urgent. Her face swam in front of him and he wondered how all the Caucasians in Japan spoke Japanese perfectly. And she had called him 'kid', too. Heh. That was funny. But he couldn't share the joke. Why couldn't he share? Kojima might have liked it and even laughed for once . . . .

No. No sharing the kid joke. He fumbled for the ice pack and held it a bit tighter against his head. The coldness of the ice numbed the pain.

The medic snapped her fingers in front of his nose, trying to get his attention back to her. "How many fingers am I holding up?" she asked with her hand held some distance above his head.

He tried to focus his eyes on the drifting fingers. "Three?"

"Good enough," she exhaled, sounding relieved. "Now you rest, alright?"

She and a man in the white clothes of a paramedic loaded his gurney into the ambulance. Nagashima and Okita hopped in after him, and they sped off to the hospital.

* * *

Chikage felt just a bit guilty as Inspector Nakamouri personally drove her to the hospital where Kaito was. Both her husband and her son were his worst enemy, his personal nemesis. So much of his time had been spent on trying to catch the elusive thief in white, the figure called 'Kid' it was a wonder he didn't outright hate Kid with a burning passion. It came pretty close to it sometimes when Kaito went overboard with the tricks, but it wasn't in the 'I-will-kill-you-slowly-and-painfully' way, it was more along the lines of 'okay-nice-one-see-you-next-time-and-that's-when-I'll-win-for-sure-you-just-wait'. He was a good sport about it all. He was a good man.

And now he was escorting her, the wife to his first nemesis and the mother of the second to the hospital where his second nemesis was with six squad cars, full sirens and lights. No one was stupid enough to get in their way and traffic lights weren't a problem thanks to his position.

Just a bit guilty. Not a tad more.

(Hey, she had been a thief as well.)

Aoko sat in the back of the cruiser, not even caring if she was sitting where criminals were supposed to be in as she jiggled her leg nervously. The boy detective – Hakuba Saguru – was tapping his finger against the plastic seat in an ever-increasing mathematical pattern she recognized as the Fibonacci Sequence with an irritated look. The last girl, Koizumi Akako, had somehow convinced the headstrong Nakamouri into letting her come along in the cruiser despite not having police connections. Out of all the three sitting in the back, she looked the calmest.

She had no idea how the girl was so calm about it all.

When the hospital came into sight, Chikage unbuckled her seatbelt. She opened the door and leapt out before the car could come to a full stop and ran through the hospital doors.

Inspector Nakamouri had to stay behind to let the three teenagers out of the back of his cruiser.

The nurse looked harassed, but when she blurted out '_Kuroba Kaito, he was kidnapped and I know he's here!_' right after '_Where is my son?!_' she gave him a room number. Fifth floor.

"Thank you!" she ran to the elevator. All six were wandering around the hospital and weren't down at the lobby.

Chikage did what she had done during her honeymoon when Toichi had planned his romantic dinner at the top of a tower without an elevator. She took her high heels off – all her comfortable shoes in Japan had gone through a ridiculous amount of abuse by a phantom thief who used her things to disguise himself as a member of the opposite sex – and ran up the five flights of stairs with feet clad in nothing but stockings.

The doctor met her outside of the ward. "Miss . . . ?"

"Kuroba," she said, out of breath. Back when she had been young and a thief she could have done fifty of those without breaking a sweat. Just showed what age did to even the fittest. "I'm-I'm Kaito's mother."

The man checked a few things off of a clipboard. "Well, your son has a small concussion, but he'll be fine after rest."

She nodded and then charged into the room. Kaito sat in the bed holding an ice pack to his head. "Mom?"

Chikage gave him a flying tackle hug. Then she released him to frantically fret about his head. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"No," he assured her. "Sorry I got myself kidnapped."

She laughed at the pun and then her Poker Face broke. She sank to her knees and buried her face in his bed sheets as she began to cry.

Kaito pulled her back up and gave her a hug. "Hey, mom, I'm alright now," he said. "It's fine. Just a concussion. Nothing permanent."

Maybe now would be a good idea. Wiping the tears off her face, she took a deep breath to stop the hysterical shaky sobs and let him go. "Kaito?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to tell you something."

The gentle smile on his face faded away a bit when he realized she was dead serious. "You're not pregnant, are you?" he said in a weak attempt at a joke.

She shook her head. "No, Kaito, it's-"

"KAITO!" Nakamouri Aoko came barrelling through the doors, followed by Kaito's cute friends.

Chikage stepped back and let her son begin to play the 'I-have-a-concussion-and-need-peace-and-quiet' card. She'd tell him later back at home.

* * *

Listened and fell into the song 'Yobanashi Deceive' by IA. And I must say, it's a perfect song for Kaito despite being a part of the Kagerou Project. Will write a fic on that someday.


	11. Salt Water

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names), Kojima Daisuke, Armagnac, Champagne, Cognac, Amaretto (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado.

Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

Underlined sentences = Spanish

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

EDIT(24/03/2013): Plot holes.

* * *

"Say these are your work, and you'll be the best biochemist in the world," he pushed the briefcase towards her. "Daddy loves you, Anita. No matter what."

Ai couldn't force her eyes shut. She wasn't sure if she would have had she known for sure.

She still wasn't sure if deep inside, she had known that he'd shoot himself in his head with a trembling hand and tears in his eyes. But damn it, he didn't stop smiling that fatherly smile.

The loud sound of the gunshot was absorbed by whatever the walls were made out of. Not concrete, that was for sure.

She managed to tear her eyes away at last. A bullet to the temple was a quick and efficient way for sure, used far too many times in movies and overly dramatic television series, but it did the job. She turned her whole head away from the now-dead doctor after the simple movement of her eyes proved to not be effective. That was it? Suicide?

. . .

Why?

She had thought he would shoot her after she smashed his fantasy. During her time in the labs of the organization she had often seen a few chemists test drugs that caused hallucination on human subjects. One drug had given them a pleasant dream that was immensely addictive to the point where the test subjects would lash out with the strength of a true cornered psychopath when they were brought back into reality.

He may not have been on that drug, but he certainly was on that level of insanity. He should have lashed out at everything and anything, including her.

Instead, he killed himself. So maybe he wasn't a psychopath, just someone mentally unstable who really thought she and that doll had been his daughters.

Someone who had been mentally unstable. Maybe, or maybe she was just trying to think good things about him. It wasn't like her reasons mattered anyways. He was just dead now. A sad end to a genius mind.

Ai looked down the tunnel. If the police saw her – with the explosions she had heard, she had no doubt they'd find this place soon – she wouldn't be allowed to keep the suitcase and be taken in for an interview. To go back the way she had come would be to risk running into the people at the front.

Not a chance.

That left the other end of the tunnel. She wasn't sure about where it would lead but the doctor had considered it safe for him and his 'daughter'. The police probably weren't down there yet.

Grabbing the heavy briefcase, she began to make her way down the tunnel before she stopped and looked back at the doctor's body. "I'm sorry."

It hadn't really been his fault, anyways. It was the Organization that had led him to his insanity.

The tunnel felt like a stretch of forever and she was puffing because of the extra weight she was carrying by the time she reached the end, where a ladder stood waiting under a trapdoor of some kind. With difficulty, she managed to climb with her briefcase.

Kudo-kun was waiting for her outside. "Do I even want to know how you knew about this passage?" she asked, dragging the dead doctor's briefcase behind her. For a seven year old girl's body it was really quite heavy and hard to carry.

The shrunken detective tried to take it from her, extending a small hand. She glared at the offered help and implied pity until he withdrew it. "I guessed," he said, placing his hand into his pocket. Good move. She'd been considering biting it.

"And you were right. Great. Now let's go home before the police decide to take this away as evidence."

She half-expected an onslaught of questions from the danger magnet, but he surprised her by merely nodding. "Can I carry that for you?"

"No," the least she could do was carry the burden that had been placed on her.

* * *

"Excuse me?"

Nagashima Shigeo looked up from the release forms the hospital had told him to fill out with a wary expression. The last time someone had said those words to him he had been tasered and imprisoned by a crazy doctor with some kind of doll fetish. "Yes?" he asked, gripping the ballpoint pen.

It was the foreigner medic who'd been treating Kuroba back outside the house, standing in front of him with a baseball in her hand. "Sorry to bother you, but I'm a fan. Would you mind signing this for me?"

He took the sphere from her gingerly and stepped back before signing the curving surface. "Who should I make it out to?" he asked.

"Just 'A'. That's what everyone calls me anyways."

Shigeo scrawled out a large, loopy English letter under his signature. "Here you go."

The blonde took it with a large smile. "Thank you!" 'A' chirped before going off somewhere with a cheerful spring in her step.

Shigeo handed the forms into the secretary at the counter and waited for Yutaka to come and pick him up.

* * *

"OKITA!"

The swordsman found all of his kendo teammates trying to get into the room he was in. All of them were trying to fit in through the narrow way all at the same time.

And again, the stereotypical image of a dumb jock came into his head.

His fellow teammates and dumb jocks were now imitating something even more annoying – a reporter.

"Ya think ya can play for th' tournament next week?"

"Didja lose yer touch?"

"Can ya fight?"

"Shh!" several nurses hissed at the mass of high school boys all still stuck in the doorway.

His kendo team members didn't know the meaning of that annoying hissing sound the nurses were making like epileptic snakes and as such they were banished from the hospital for disturbing patients.

Soshi sighed and filled out his forms as quickly as possible before hurrying out to make them stop embarrassing Osaka.

How the hell had they even come down to Tokyo this quickly?

* * *

Takagi stepped out of the car and opened the door for Diana-san, who all but jumped out of the vehicle before flying into her husband's arms. Colin Smith lost his balance and fell over, pinned to the ground by his wife. He didn't seem to mind being on the ground. Or maybe he just didn't notice. He looked quite busy while he tousled her hair and told her it was alright as she cried into his shirt.

After a few moments they started kissing. The whole thing was like a scene out of a romance movie, and neither of them looked ready to get up by their own free will any minute. Embarrassed, he looked away with a smile. A happy ending.

Sato snickered. "At least someone's happy."

"Huh?"

"You forgot? There's one boy still missing. They're searching the place the boys said they were trapped in-"

Her cell phone buzzed. The female detective picked up. "Sato here."

Someone on the other side said a few things. "Oh, really? And him too? Now? Alright. Yeah, I will."

"What was it?" Takagi asked when she put her phone away with a somber expression.

"Speak of the devil," she sighed. "They found Kojima Daisuke's body."

"Oh," he suddenly didn't feel so happy about the Smith reunion anymore. "Oh."

"They've also found Dr. Hailey. He's been shot in the head, point blank. It was too late to do anything."

"Oh," he remembered seeing Conan-kun at the house. _"Did someone die here?"_ he had asked the genius boy after seeing him there unexpectedly. Prophetic words.

"Forensics are already at the house. They want us there now," Sato stepped back into the car.

He shot one last look at the couple still sitting on the ground – still kissing, too – before going back to his job.

* * *

The medic swung put casually through the back entrance of the hospital, trailing right behind the large crowd of nurses going off on break with a cell phone in her hand. The security cameras would record a distracted member of the herd who was trying to stay connected to the vast, invisible web around the world and that would be the image the police would see if they ever reviewed this clip for some reason.

Of course, if they were looking specifically for her this probably wouldn't fool them long. Once she knew she was out of the camera's range she swung away from the herd and entered a car that was waiting for her. Once inside, out of sight behind heavily tinted bulletproof glass windows she let out a sigh.

"Kojima Daisuke died," Eliza Sterling told her immediately from the front passenger's seat. The British woman had sunglasses on – a sight as rare as the Loch Ness Monster – and she was tapping away at the seat of her chair. A was willing to bet her life on the name of that numerical sequence.

The woman in the driver's seat hummed. "It's not your fault," she said. "We had to keep confidentiality-"

"And so I deliberately made sure that my profiling wasn't my best work. Whether it was my fault or not a boy is dead and I was involved."

"We all were," Lady A told her as she changed into different clothes.

She saw Eliza scowl in the mirror. "The police said that the first bomb was set to make sure that the gasoline was spread everywhere. The second bomb insured instant inflammation. It was a time bomb and if I could have sent a better profile quicker that boy would still be alive."

The woman in the driver's seat sighed as she turned the keys. "If _he_ managed to get his hands on the profile done in your usual style _he_ would have known, and then everything you've done to keep him safe would have been put totally out of commission."

Eliza didn't answer. The phantom thief had a good suspicion of just what the former profiler was hiding under her dark shades, but she kept her mouth shut.

Her phone beeped, letting her know there was a new message. It was from the boss, a curt reply to the text she had sent informing him about the (mostly) success.

It had been about ten minutes since she had sent it. He was back to his usual self again.

Their teammate and designated driver stepped on the gas pedal and they began to move forward, the hybrid car engine barely making a sound.

* * *

When the Smiths finally got up from the ground, their attire was significantly rumpled. Smiling in kind understanding, the officers allowed them to go to the bathrooms to straighten up.

Diana Smith gave her husband one last kiss and a watery, content smile before trotting off into the bathroom where she bumped into a woman who dropped her makeup kit. Tubes of lipstick, foundation, BB cream, mascara and other things tumbled onto the ground and bounced into different directions. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she apologized for the benefit of anyone listening in.

"It's alright," the other woman replied for the same reason as the two of them began picking it all up. "I drop them all the time!"

Smiling sheepishly, Diana handed the cheerful woman her lipstick and the hairpin Colin had tugged off her hair 'accidently' during their reunion. "Me, too," she admitted as the woman with brown hair took her offering, hairpin and all. "It drives my husband nuts."

"Wish I could say I had one," zipping up her bag, she waved and left the room.

Diana smoothed her hair, wiped away tear tracks – careful not to touch the temporary alterations to her face – and straightened her clothes. In the mirror stood the reflection of a recently rescued woman who could be strong again because she was with her husband.

Perfect.

She walked out of the bathroom. The clumsy woman with the defective makeup case was gone.

* * *

Both of Kojima Daisuke's parents were at work when the police called them. Chiba was taken aback at just how impassive they seemed about their own son's death.

"Is that him?" the father asked, gesturing at the covered body with his chin.

Inspector Shiratori nodded.

They exchanged looks. "Please have him cremated," the mother requested in clipped, polite tones.

And that was it for the cold couple, who left after filling out a few forms. Chiba looked down at the sheet covered body lying on the cold metal table and wondered just what this boy's life had been like.

* * *

"Can't believe you made me meet you here," Champagne muttered in Spanish as she slid into the seat opposite of her team member. "In public, full disguise and all. I hate latex masks, you know that."

Armagnac took a sip of his drink. He didn't even bat an eyelid, the bastard. "I know."

She glowered at him. "Why in a public place, then? And why aren't you in disguise?"

"Café Poirot has amazing coffee and an employee I need to have a word with. As for the reason why you're in disguise and I'm not . . . well, no one cares about some head of the media. I'd prefer, though, not to be known as the mystery man having coffee with Beniko Banderas."

Damn the man and his love of staying in the shadows. "Here," she tossed him the hairpin that was also a hidden microchip containing information her friend had risked everything for. She had already made three backups. "Happy birthday."

The black-haired man paused as he put away the hairpin. "You remembered?"

Champagne rolled her eyes – ow! Damn coloured contacts! "Hard to forget."

He paused. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. And don't you dare order birthday cake, you know I need to watch my figure."

* * *

One more chapter and I'm done!

Here's a mention of the sequel - my DC remodelled version of a famous boy group will be appearing. I'll give you two hints about the identity of the original group. Let's see who knows who they are.

1 - They're Korean.

2 - They're going to be performing on 08/03/2013 and 09/03/2013 at the Orpheum Annex Theatre, Vancouver, BC. That's this Friday and Saturday, folks!


	12. Once Was

**Scarborough Fair**

**Summary:** Kuroba Kaito finds himself in a sticky situation when he's kidnapped by a man who's also guilty for the abduction of three others. How can even the Kaitou Kid escape drug-induced paralysis, a psychotic doctor, a blackmailed housekeeper, and a mansion filled with traps and dungeons?

**Pairings:** Very minor hints.

**A/N:** I own nothing except Dr. Hailey, Anita Hailey (though I don't own their names) Kojima Daisuke, Armagnac, Champagne, Cognac, Amaretto (though I don't own their designs) and 'A'. Okita Soshi and Nagashima Shigeo are actual DC people. Think Yaiba and Yoban Saado.

Title comes from Simon and Garkunkel song. Also loosely based around Mothy's song, 'Little Garden Girl' feat. Hatsune Miku. May be called alternate name of 'Clockwork Lullaby 2'.

**Prequel:** "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"

**Side Story:** "Clockwork Relations"

* * *

"We told you."

"You told me," Kaito rephrased his friend's words in an indulging tone like a patient child worker would do for a crying kid. "You said that about a hundred times already."

Aoko scowled at him, but her face was soft as she pushed lightly at him. Not even hard enough to move a feather, which was a far cry from her usual violent ways, the smashes and swings that left him pumping with fear and adrenaline. No, this was nothing compared to the usual things he went through.

He hated this concussion. Okita and Nagashima had practically been thrown out of the building to get them away from the media hounds – both of them didn't want coverage for this – but those quacks in the white coats were still doing tests to make sure that he'd be fine, all because some defective light fixture had broken loose and hit his head. Honestly! One light bulb and they were treating him like something made out of fragile glass! "Weak," he taunted, trying to goad her into her usual self.

She didn't fall for it. "Not today, Kaito," Aoko warned him. "Don't make me hit your head."

Hakuba smirked from his seat as he flipped a page in the Holmes book – the Sign of Four – in his lap. Next to him, Akako examined her nails.

His mother smiled radiantly. "Well, since Kaito already admitted that he didn't follow the good advice his cute friends gave him," she chirped. "I think he needs to buy all of his cute friends a few rounds!"

"We're underage," Hakuba reminded her.

Kuroba Chikage, ever the strict parent, shrugged with a carefree look. "So?"

"Kuroba-san, with all due respect, Nakamouri-chan's father is a police officer and my own parents are – were – involved in law enforcement."

His mother sighed. "Spoilsport. Fine. Kaito, you're going to treat them at an eating place of their choice for not listening to their advice."

In his experience, it did absolutely no good to try and argue with his mother. Besides, why not? He _did_ owe them for the trouble he had caused them. "Sure."

* * *

In the car with his wife, Cognac ripped off the latex mask. "I don't know how Miss Vermouth or Champagne can tolerate going around with this," he muttered.

Amaretto was removing her own disguises. Unlike him, she had only been able to use minor alterations to make herself look like a completely different person, but despite the limitations that had been given to her disguise she and Champagne had managed to pull it off perfectly. Now free of all the temporary silicon alterations that had been on her face, she leaned back into the seat. "That feels good," she sighed.

Cognac nodded. "Here's your passport," he said as he handed her the small booklet of her original identity. "We're going back to where it all started."

She took it and leaned in closer, resting her head on his shoulder before closing her eyes. "Wake me up when we get there?" she asked him in a voice that almost made him believe she was vulnerable. He knew she was tougher than that.

"Of course."

Their car drove towards what he hoped to be a fresh start for them.

* * *

"Nakamouri-chan?"

Aoko looked up. "Yes, Akako-chan?"

The red-haired girl tipped her head towards her bag. "I think your phone's ringing."

A quick check showed that her classmate's words were true. She excused herself to take the call. "Hello?"

_"Hi, Aoko!"_

Her face dropped before she could even think about it and several words her father often used when he was extremely frustrated and drunk came to mind.

Those words would also end up getting her into a lot of trouble if she ever dared to speak them out loud in public. She took a deep breath to swallow them back into a place where no one could hear them and began to talk to the person on the other end in what she desperately hoped to be a casual, friendly voice.

When it rained, it poured.

* * *

The doctor came in about an hour after Aoko returned. He sprouted some medical mumbo jumbo before summing it all up in one sentence. "So you're good to go."

He blinked. His eyes had been glazing at the doctor's boring rambling and truth be told, he had just ignored the man. "What?" he said stupidly.

"As long as you don't do anything strenuous, you'll be fine."

So no Kid heists for a while?

"Avoid jumping around and try not to be put in a situation where something hitting your head is very likely."

So, no Kid heists for a while. He saw Hakuba smirk. Great. Whatever temporary truce there had been between them while the kidnapper was going around, it sure as hell wouldn't be on again back in school when Kuroba Kaito was supposed to be taking it easy and Kaitou Kid was conveniently absent.

His mother smiled at the doctor. "I'll make sure he behaves," she promised.

But apparently that promise and the long speech loaded with medical terms he had only half understood wasn't enough for the guy – a quack in a white coat, his mind reminded him – who began to tell his mother all about the medical prescriptions he could get if anything went wrong.

He finally shut up when Akako 'accidently' dropped her purse on his foot. "EEEYAARGH!" the annoying quack yelled as the purse smashed his toes with a heavy sounding clunk.

When the doctor hobbled away with tears in his eyes Akako took a brick out of the purse and set it on the windowsill like it was the most natural thing for a girl in high school to do. "You're welcome," she told him.

* * *

When she came into the living room, towel-drying her hair, Dr. Agasa gave a meaningful cough and a look to the shrunken detective across the room before exiting the house with slow, deliberate steps, clearly fleeing the scene of the possible future crime.

Kudo-kun sat on the sofa, looking emotionless. A perfect poker face. "We need to talk."

"No, we don't," she slung the slightly damp towel across her shoulder to absorb all the extra water her hair still held. "What _I _need to do is work on the antidote. The doctor told me something about a poison-"

He had the nerve to interrupt her. "A poison that kills without trace, as well as a refined antipsychotic and a-"

Ai didn't approve of this knowledge he had in his possession. He had no right to know this. He shouldn't have even- "How do you know this?" she interrupted his interruption.

The shrunken detective in front of her tapped his glasses. "I bugged Dr. Hailey."

She pulled the computer chair up and sat. "Talk."

He tapped his fingers against his leg for a few moments while she stared at him impatiently. "At first it was to see if he knew where you were," he began. "Your badge said that you were to the west, but I couldn't see you where you were supposed to be. Then I heard you over the footsteps and in between his talking . . . so I listened in."

Ai shrugged, trying to decrease the importance of those words. "That's it?"

"No," if he had looked serious before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now. Every single part of him radiated seriousness.

It was one of the very few moments in her life that she felt silly and child-like, neither of which were pleasant feelings for her.

"Why'd you tell him your real name?"

The silly feeling got worse. She knew where he would go with this. Tell her that it was stupid, that she was being careless – oh, the irony of it all – that it was ridiculously dangerous to risk such a thing for nothing at all.

To her, though, it wasn't just 'nothing'. It was a silly whim, yes, but at the moment it had been right.

"I had to," she answered.

"Why?"

Detectives and their searches to learn why. "I just wanted him to know that I wasn't his daughter."

Was that disapproval on his face now? "He could have been a member of the Organization," she wasn't sure what was colouring his voice right now.

She knew about the possibility. "I know."

"If he was, you would have been killed."

Actually, she would have been taken, tortured for information and _then_ killed. The corner of her lip turned up ever so slightly. Always the pragmatic ideologist, that detective. Nice of him to cut out the gory details. "Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Maybe," she said firmly. "But he wasn't my father and I wasn't some replacement or safety blanket. I wanted him to know that I wasn't someone he wanted me to be."

Saying it out loud helped organize her thoughts. Her now-organized thoughts told her that her actions had been stupid. "You know what?" she asked aloud. "I'm tired. Good night, Kudo-kun."

Surprisingly, he didn't argue against her decision. "Night, Haibara."

He showed himself out. She went to bed wondering if he understood the insecurities of trying to reconnect with a parent. Maybe he did. After all, his parents were quite eccentric and often away.

* * *

Shinichi met Dr. Agasa outside. "I tried," he shrugged.

"I'm sure you did, Shinichi," his neighbor and confidant nodded, yawning. "She's just trying to focus on your antidote right now. I'm sure that she'll be able to find out how to bring you back now that she has the formula for the poison that shrunk you."

He stayed silent for a few moments. "Do you really think so?" he asked, knowing that he sounded more like what his body looked like now than he did back when he had actually been seven years old. Second childhood, his mother would call it. Only this childhood was filled with fear of a crime organization that would kill them all if their secrets were out.

"Of course I do," the older man said like he truly believed it.

The optimism was a nice comfort to him. "Thanks, professor," he took out the envelope his mother – the real Yukiko Kudo this time, not Lady A in disguise – had dropped off. "Will you give this to Haibara when she wakes up?" he asked as he handed him part of Lady A's reward. Inside the manila envelope the papers – birth certificate, health insurance and passport – for one Haibara Ai sat waiting to be used as the support for her disguise. Lady A had also added a few sheets of paper describing just what kind of life Haibara Ai had lived. It was a bland, boring life the girl got, but he supposed it would be easier to lie about that way. Keep facts simple and straightforward.

His were quite similar, only for his background Lady A had simply told him to use his parents' contacts to solidify his lie.

"Good night, professor."

"Good night, Shinichi."

* * *

"Oh, gosh, look at the time!" Aoko gasped, gawking down at the face of her wristwatch.

Hakuba, ever the prat, glanced at his scarily accurate pocket watch with disinterest. "Eleven forty-seven, fifty-two seconds," he yawned. The half British teenager seemed pretty tired. "My governess will be here in around three minutes and twelve seconds, if I'm correct in my estimates. Would you like a ride back home, Koizumi-chan?"

Akako accepted gracefully, while Aoko waved and muttered about how her dad would freak out. "Why hasn't he called me?" she wondered as she dug her cell phone out of her bag. "Oh . . . ."

"Out of battery?" he guessed and knew that he had struck the nail dead on the head when he saw her guilty face.

"I'm sure he'll understand," his mother said. "I did tell him that we were going to celebrate Kaito's health and return to my house when we were leaving."

Aoko visibly relaxed before she let out a huge yawn. "Thank you, Chikage-san!"

Hakuba's phone buzzed and the screen lit up with the notification of a new message. He glanced down at it before getting out of his seat. "Thank you very much for everything, Kuroba-san," he said to his mother before offering an arm to Akako. "Koizumi-chan?"

The two creepy people walked out the door, leaving his house and a lot of the burden on Kaito's chest was relieved as he watched two of his classmates climb into the car Hakuba's housekeeper person had driven here. He waved from his spot at the doorway until they were out of sight in the darkness of the night.

That left only him and his childhood friend at the doorway. Aoko glared half-heartedly at him, hands childishly placed on her hips. "You stay in bed," she ordered, clearly trying – and failing – to look intimidating.

"Yes ma'am," he grinned at her, trying to look trusty. Judging from the twitch in her brow it hadn't worked, but she patted his arm and left for her own home anyways.

Kaito closed the door and locked it before making his way into the kitchen. His mother was washing the cups his friends had used and putting them onto the rack to dry. "Do you need anything?" he asked, not really expecting her to answer.

She did. "Kaito, we need to talk."

Kuroba Chikage's voice was so serious and solemn that he paused on his way towards his room. "Uh, okay?" it came out more as a question. "What about?"

His mother set the last of the cups onto the wire rack before tugging her apron off and taking a seat at the table. He followed her example and sat across from her. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" he asked as he noticed her gnawing her lips. She was clearly nervous.

Had she met someone while travelling? Maybe she wanted him to have a new father. While he strongly disapproved of some guy being a replacement for the best dad in the whole world he wouldn't hold it against her for wanting someone close to her again. No matter how much he tried Kaito knew that there were just some gaps in his mother's heart he couldn't fill.

"You're not getting remarried, are you?" he asked as a joke. His mother was wavering, obviously trying to make her mind up about a hard decision.

She shook her head and still wouldn't meet his eyes. "Kaito, you know I love you, right?"

"Yeah . . . ." where was this going?

Kuroba Chikage exhaled, closing her eyes. Kaito mentally braced himself. Her expression, her body language, everything about her at the moment was the stance a woman who thought she had nothing to lose as she pulled a risky, dangerous Hail Mary. Her decision was made.

His mother met his eyes. "Kaito," she began and he saw resolve hardened in her eyes. What was it? What?

"Stop looking for Pandora. Stop being Kaitou Kid."

* * *

_Fin._

Oh, and the boy group was BIGBANG.

Kojima Daisuke's appearance was based off Gary Oak from Pokemon. Just imagine Shinichi/Kaito with Gary's hair.

As for my OC BO members, the credits go to the Bookmark of Demise project.

Amaretto/Diana: D-ne

Cognac/Colin: C-ta

Champagne/Beniko: B-ko

Armagnac: A-ya

Also, if you're one of the thirty people who subscribed, you will be notified when the sequel is up. If you have already placed me on your author alert list (you're probably regretting that now when I'm spamming you with fics unrelated to DC stuff) you will not get a PM from me, you will get an automatic email from FF nicely giving you the link.

Don't forget, I'll be posting two side stories. If you miss them, don't worry, I'll remind everyone in the sequel.

Thank you for reading and supporting!


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